According to recently released data from the Vinh Long Department of Agriculture and Environment, the province’s coconut export value in 2025 is estimated at around 500 million USD, up 2.9% from last year. Key coconut-based export products recorded growth of over 10% compared to the same period in 2024, while fresh coconut exports are expected to exceed 35 million nuts.
Vinh Long’s total coconut output in 2025 is forecast to reach more than 1.3 million tons, equivalent to over 1 billion coconuts. Compared with 2020, production has increased by more than 243 tons, including 360 million drinking coconuts, 733.6 million industrial coconuts, and 3.2 million wax coconuts.
The Department of Agriculture and Environment noted that investment in raw-material zones, deep-processing technologies, and market expansion is helping the coconut industry become a major economic sector, generating jobs and improving local incomes.
To date, the province has 183 enterprises involved in coconut production and processing, employing more than 9,000 workers—mainly in rural areas. Key coconut-derived products include coconut oil, coconut water, coconut milk, coconut cream, desiccated coconut, coconut candy; coconut nectar products, nata de coco; coconut-based cosmetics; coconut-shell charcoal, coir fiber and coir-based products, coconut peat; as well as coconut handicrafts.
Currently, about 60–65% of the province’s coconut output is consumed through local processing operations, generating high-value products such as coconut water, coconut oil, coconut candy, and desiccated coconut. Roughly 10–15% is exported as raw coconuts, with the remainder sold fresh on the domestic market. For drinking coconuts alone, around 10–15% are pre-processed for export, while the rest are consumed fresh across the country.
Vinh Long has nearly 120,000 hectares of coconut plantations with around 22 million trees, accounting for more than 50% of the country’s total coconut area. The former Ben Tre Province (the merged area of the current Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long provinces, forming the new Vinh Long Province) alone has 79,000 hectares of coconut, exporting to 90 countries and territories, representing 47% of Vietnam’s coconut area and over 60% of the Mekong Delta’s total coconut-growing area.
On January 26, 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) issued Decision No. 431/QĐ-BNN-BNNPTNT approving the project “Development of Key Industrial Crops to 2030.” Under the plan, coconut is identified as one of the nation’s six key industrial crops (coffee, rubber, tea, cashew, pepper, and coconut). Coconut is primarily grown in the Mekong Delta provinces, which account for 88% of Vietnam’s coconut acreage, concentrated mainly in four provinces—Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long—which together constitute 80% of the region’s coconut-growing area.
According to 2023 statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), during 2011–2021, Vietnam’s coconut-growing area expanded at an average rate of 2.7% per year. By 2022, the total area had reached about 194,000 hectares, mostly in the south-central coastal region and the Mekong Delta, with the latter accounting for the majority.
Regarding Vietnam’s coconut industry status, although the country’s coconut acreage accounts for only 1.67% of global coconut area, 2.07% of Asia's coconut area, and contributes just 0.43% and 0.71% of production value (nearly 7.3 trillion VND) to the agriculture and crop sectors respectively, Vietnam still ranks highly on the global market. As of early 2022, Vietnam ranked fifth worldwide in coconut-growing area, third in productivity, fifth in output, and fourth in export value.
Source: vneconomy.vn
