Cocoa
French missionaries and luminaries brought cacao to Vietnam in the 19th century. The famous Dr. Alexandre Yersin (disciple of Louis Pasteur, discoverer of the bubonic plague bacillus and formidable presence in Indochina until 1943) is said to have tried his hand at cacao farming Vietnam.
Let’s just say it might not have been his most successful enterprise. That or the records disappeared. We know with a bit more certainty that a missionary, Father Gernot, planted cacao trees in Ben Tre in the late 1800s. Administrative records from the early 20th century reveal the Lieutenant Gen
