Vietnam's coffee output in 2011 may be boosted by up to 12,000 metric tons under a joint venture that allows the country to grow coffee on up to 6,000 hectares of land in southern Laos.

The Vietnam-Laos Coffee Joint Stock Co. was given the green light earlier this week to grow 1,000 hectares of coffee in the Lao province of Champassak, said an official from the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association Thursday.

Under the agreement made between the Vietnam National Coffee Corp., Dak Uy Coffee Company of Kon Tum province in Vietnam and the Champassak authorities, the joint venture company will rent 1,000 hectares of land to grow coffee, with the possibility of adding between 3,000-5,000 hectares at a later date.

However, analysts believe that more land will be cultivated for coffee under this agreement.

Each hectare of land will yield about two tons of coffee, growers said.

Vietnam, the world's largest grower of robusta coffee, currently has 500,000 hectares of coffee farmland and produced 930,000 tons of coffee in the 2006-2007 crop year. However, not all farmland is suitable for the crop and the government is encouraging farmers to stop growing coffee on such land. It aims to reduce coffee acreage in Vietnam by 10 percent to 450,000 hectares by 2010 to focus on quality.

The proposed coffee farms will provide jobs for thousands of Laos laborers and develop currently uncultivated land.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/19/ap3931609.html