Why does Vietnam have to spend a huge amount of money importing coconuts?

As one of the world’s leading coconut exporting countries, Vietnam had to spend up to 183 billion VND to import coconuts in the first 4 months of this year, more than 11 times higher than the same period last year. This paradox is posing a big problem for the Vietnamese coconut industry.

Spend up to 183 billion VND to buy coconuts

Vietnam is currently a country coconut export 5th largest in the world and 4th in the Asia-Pacific region, with a turnover of nearly 1.1 billion USD in 2024.

However, according to data from the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, in the first four months of this year, our country spent 7.2 million USD (equivalent to 183 billion VND) to import coconut products - a sharp increase of 1,031% compared to the same period last year. This is a sudden increase, making coconut one of the 13 fruits with the highest import turnover during this period.

Vietnam imports record coconuts as domestic prices 'peak'. Illustration photo: IT.

Explaining this phenomenon, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen - General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association - said that the demand for processed coconut from the US, EU and Chinese markets is increasing rapidly, while the source domestic materials The export of fresh fruit is expanding, but coconut processing enterprises are "thirsty" for raw materials, so they have to import coconut water, coconut meat, and dried coconut from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

In fact, many businesses are boosting the production of high-value processed products such as coconut milk, activated carbon from coconut, coconut oil, etc. for export. However, paradoxically, they have to import raw materials at high prices due to insufficient domestic supply.

Mr. Cao Ba Dang Khoa - Permanent Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Coconut Association - confirmed that this year's coconut crop failed due to extreme heat and severe saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta provinces, especially in Ben Tre - the coconut capital of the country. In many growing areas, coconuts could not flower, causing a sharp decrease in output.

While processing demand increases, facilities are forced to import raw materials at high prices to maintain production.

How to 'save' the coconut industry?

Also due to the serious shortage of supply, domestic coconut prices have increased sharply in recent times.

According to Mr. Khoa, compared to the same period last year, the price of raw coconut increased by 500 - 600%. As for fresh coconut, due to the media effect of exporting to China and the US, the price of fresh coconut in the country also increased by 200 to 250% compared to the same period last year.

Currently, on the market, the price of raw dry coconut fluctuates between 210,000 - 215,000 VND/12 fruits, 2.5 to 3 times higher than the same period last year. Organic dry coconut can cost up to 255,000 VND/dozen, while white coconut meat is also purchased at 35,000 - 38,000 VND/kg.

The Vietnam Coconut Association has made many proposals to rescue the coconut industry from the bottleneck of raw materials. Illustration photo: IT.

Mr. Khoa, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Coconut Association, said that in addition to the decline in domestic raw material sources, recently, Vietnam's raw coconut has been "bleeding" to Cambodia, Thailand and China.

The reason is that from February to April, raw coconut exports to Thailand increased sharply. Thailand is changing its crop varieties. Therefore, they increased their imports of raw coconuts from Vietnam through Cambodia. In addition, Chinese enterprises also increased their raw processing, preliminary processing, and freezing, so they also increased their imports of raw coconuts.

Faced with this reality, the Vietnam Coconut Association has made many proposals to rescue the coconut industry from the bottleneck of raw materials. One of the important solutions is to impose a tax on raw coconut exports to retain raw materials for domestic processing. Mr. Cao Ba Dang Khoa said that learning from the Philippines and Malaysia to ban the export of raw coconuts would help Vietnam stabilize the source of raw materials for the processing industry.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is also implementing a project to develop coconut trees into a key industrial crop by 2030. Currently, the country has 200,000 hectares of coconut trees, with an output of about 2 million tons/year, of which 1/3 of the area meets organic standards.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/vi-sao-viet-nam-vua-phai-chi-khoan-tien-rat-lon-nhap-khau-dua-3363943.html