베트남 열대성 insights

Vietnam's coconut industry has seen significant growth in terms of export volume, export value, and commodity value. According to Cao Bodenko, Secretary General of the Vietnam Coconut Association, in the first half of 2025, the export value of the four main coconut products exceeded $520 million, a year-on-year increase of 20%. Mr. Cao Bodenko predicts that the export value of all types of coconut products from Vietnam in 2025 is expected to reach between $1.1 billion and $1.15 billion, with a year-on-year growth of about 20-25%. In particular, the export value of fresh coconuts is expected to far exceed last year's $390 million. This makes Vietnam the fourth largest coconut exporter in the Asia-Pacific region and the fifth largest in the world. With the growth in export value, the selling price of Vietnamese coconuts has also achieved a breakthrough. In 2023, the price of coconuts in the garden was about 5,000 Vietnamese dong per piece, rising to 15,000 Vietnamese dong per piece by the third quarter of 2025. However, to fully tap into the huge market potential, Vietnam's coconut industry must achieve sustainable development, innovate cultivation, processing, and value chain management methods. Adopting environmentally friendly, climate-adaptive, and emission-reducing coconut cultivation methods will become key factors in the future. A recent significant development is the approval by the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) of the codes for six new coconut planting areas and packaging factories in An Giang province, Vietnam. This opens up opportunities for Vietnam's fresh coconuts to penetrate deeper into the Chinese market, which currently accounts for 30%-35% of Vietnam's coconut export value. Vietnamese coconuts maintain a unique aroma and sweetness, which are favored by consumers in the United States and China. Additionally, Vietnamese fresh coconuts have advantages in transportation and preservation, and can be processed into various value-added products such as coconut flakes, coconut milk, canned coconut juice, and cosmetic ingredients. Adopting organic and environmentally friendly cultivation methods has become a sustainable direction to consolidate Vietnam's position in the global market for coconut products.

According to Nikkei Asia, Japanese trade statistics show that Vietnam's banana imports surged to 33,000 tons in 2024, a nearly 14-fold increase from 2019, raising Vietnam's market share in Japan from 0.2% to 3.2%. Although Vietnam holds a small share of Japan's total banana imports, the surge in imports is eroding the long-standing dominance of Philippine bananas. The latter's market share has fallen from around 90% in the early 2010s to approximately 75% last year. Currently, Vietnam ranks third in banana exports to Japan, behind the Philippines and Ecuador. Industry insiders attribute Vietnam's rapid rise to its competitive pricing and superior quality. Price displays from a chain supermarket show that Vietnamese bananas retail for about 10% less than those from the Philippines. Meanwhile, thanks to preferential trade terms under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Japan's tariff on Vietnamese bananas is as low as 5.4% and will be completely eliminated by 2028. In contrast, tariffs on Philippine bananas range from 8-18% depending on the season, which may further enhance Vietnam's price advantage in the coming years.

The sales director of the well-known seafood trading company Siam Canadian Group (Thai-Canada Group) in Vietnam, Le Thi Thuy Trang, told UCN: "Due to poor weather conditions, the current timing is not suitable for breeding basa fish. Continuous heavy rains have affected the pH value of the pond water, and the drastic changes between sunny and rainy days have led to an increase in mortality rates." "Moreover, the survival rate of the fry is quite low, and the cost of breeding has increased. Farmers clearly realize that the current timing is not suitable for breeding, and they are unwilling to release the fish. They prefer to wait until the basa fish grow to a larger size to achieve higher profits," Trang said. Since August, the price of basa fish fry in Vietnam has risen significantly, almost reaching the high point for the first quarter of this year. In the 34th week (August 18-24), the factory purchase price for basa fish of 1.2kg+ specifications (mainly sold to China) fell, narrowing the gap with the price of medium and small specifications; while the price for 800g-1kg specifications (targeted at the European and American markets) increased slightly. Trang stated that currently, processing factories mainly rely on their own production to maintain output, with prices remaining stable at $3.15-$3.25/kg, consistent with the end of July. If the factories run out of their own bred basa fish, farmers will raise the prices, so the trend of rising raw material prices is evident. In the 35th week, the price of basa fish from Vietnam in the U.S. wholesale market remained stable, with buyers still very cautious. The overall market demand in the U.S. was weak, and importers were still dealing with existing inventory. Starting from July, the market for basa fish raw materials weakened, with a drop of around 10%; the price of fry fell by about 5%. The supply shortage situation began to emerge in August.