Why does Vietnam spend hundreds of billions of dong 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. What is the reason?

Coconut prices are currently high - Photo: N.TRI

According to the Vietnam Coconut Association, our country is the 5th largest coconut exporter in the world and the 4th largest in the Asia- Pacific region, with a turnover of nearly 1.1 billion USD in 2024.

Coconut imports skyrocket compared to last year

However, according to data from the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, in the first 4 months of 2025, our country spent 7.2 million USD (equivalent to about 183 billion VND) to import coconut products, a sharp increase of 1,031% over the same period in 2024. This is a sudden increase, making coconut one of the 13 fruits with the highest import turnover during this period.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre Online on June 25, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen - General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association - said that the US, EU, and especially China markets are increasing imports of fresh coconuts, raw coconuts, and processed coconut products from Vietnam, but our raw material sources are sometimes insufficient, forcing increased imports.

"This is summer in some countries like the US and China, so the use of coconut for refreshment has increased sharply, not to mention Vietnam has officially exported fresh coconut to China with a sharp increase in quantity. These factors contribute to the shortage of supply, requiring more imports, especially for the processing sector," Mr. Nguyen explained.

Similarly, speaking to Tuoi Tre Online, a representative of the Vietnam Coconut Association said that the export of fresh coconuts and coconut products is expanding, but businesses are lacking raw materials so they have to import coconut water, coconut meat, dried coconut... from a number of countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, mainly Indonesia.

"The time when coconut trees hang (have few fruits) is usually concentrated in September-October for tall coconuts and March-April for dwarf coconuts, these times often make the supply more scarce," said the representative.

Many businesses said they are boosting production to export high-value processed products such as coconut milk, activated carbon from coconut, coconut oil, coconut jelly... However, to meet orders, these units have to increase raw material imports at high prices due to insufficient domestic supply.

Coconut prices increase sharply, people compete to plant

In many areas, the current wholesale price of raw dry coconut is commonly at 190,000 - 215,000 VND/dozen of 12 fruits, an increase of 2 - 2.5 times compared to the low price last year. As for fresh coconut, due to good export, the domestic price is also quite high at around 150,000 VND/dozen of 12 fruits.

The high price has caused many farmers in the Southwest, Central Highlands, Central regions... to rush to plant coconuts, pushing up the price of coconut seedlings, commonly 45,000 - 90,000 VND/tree depending on the type, double last year.

Many experts say that in addition to Vietnam, some countries such as Thailand, the Philippines... have also increased coconut planting, leading to concerns about supply exceeding demand in the future.

However, Mr. Nguyen said that dwarf coconuts must be planted for 4 years or more to produce a lot of fruit, tall coconuts take longer, while the demand for fresh coconuts and coconut products is increasing, many countries are increasing imports to process into food, cosmetics...

"Coconut prices are likely to remain good compared to previous years, at least in the short term. However, with many countries increasing their acreage, Vietnam needs to proactively increase deep processing, expand the market... for the coconut industry to develop sustainably," said Mr. Nguyen.

Many experts believe that the current limitation of exporting fresh coconuts is that preservation technology is not yet strongly developed, so exports to distant markets such as the US, Europe... are not as much as expected.

According to the agricultural sector's plan to develop key industrial crops by 2030, coconut trees strive to produce 2.1 - 2.3 million tons/year. Currently, the country has 200,000 hectares of coconut trees, with a yield of about 2 million tons/year, of which 1/3 of the area meets organic standards.

NGUYEN TRI

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/vi-sao-viet-nam-chi-hang-tram-ti-dong-nhap-khau-dua-20250625203326988.htm