Improving Acacia smallholder plantation value chains in Thừa Thiên Huế cooperative alliance, Vietnam

Resúmen

Acacia plantations in Vietnam have an important role in supplying the wood processing industry and generating income for small-scale forest owners. However, it is proving difficult to improve their incomes and reduce the vulnerabilities inherent to current production systems. To address this situation, a quantitative and qualita-tive value chain analysis was undertaken to understand the products and profits from small-scale Acacia plantations in Thừa Thiên Huế province in Vietnam. The results show that Acacia plantations are profitable, require low levels of inputs and have a short minimum rotation time of five years. Harvesting and transport costs account for a large proportion of total production costs. Traders play an important role in linking producers and processors. Most of the products traded are Acacia logs for chipping and processing into other products and for saw-wood to produce timber for carpentry and domestic uses. Acacia logs with larger diameters of over 15 cm have a higher added value for wood processing companies pro-ducing furniture for export. Vulnerabilities include the highly fragmented value chain with little coordination and few information exchange mechanisms, and differences between ethnic groups that suggest a need for culturally sensitive intervention on value chains. Different options to increase profits – particularly for smallholder plantation owners – include product diversification, chain integration, and increased production to achieve efficiencies of scale.