Vietnam will earn US$1 billion from exports of fresh coconuts and products made from them this year, up from $900 million last year, the Vietnam Coconut Association has said.
China has stepped up coconut imports, enabling Vietnam’s exports to increase, it said.
Five years ago Vietnam was not on the global coconut map, but has now become the fourth biggest coconut and coconut products exporter in the Asia-Pacific, it said.
Nguyen Dinh Tung, CEO of Vina T&T Import-Export Company, said his company exports some 15 containers of fresh coconut to the U.S., Australia, South Korea, and Japan each month, and is increasing them.
Nguyen Van Thu, chairman of the G.C Food Joint Stock Company, which owns the country’s largest coconut jelly plant, said there are plans to increase exports, including of jelly.
“G.C Food is going to expand investment to raise the capacity of its coconut jelly plant to 20,000-30,000 tons a year. The products will be exported to the Chinese market.”
The company reported jelly output of 2,800 tons in the first four months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 26%. For the full year last year production was 6,500 tons.
Ben Tre Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation is strengthening production of coconut dried endosperm, oil and milk for export.
Its bottled coconut juice is also popular in many countries, it said.
