Unique Ben Tre floating coconut market - Episode 1: Coconut - everything is money

07/02/2023 1273 0
Sông Thom do người Pháp đào năm 1905, dài 15km chảy cắt ngang cù lao Minh qua hai huyện Mỏ Cày Nam - Mỏ Cày Bắc, Bến Tre.

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A corner of the Thom River floating coconut market - Photo: H.A.

On this important waterway connecting Ham Luong and Co Chien rivers, there is a unique floating market in the country, because the market only buys and sells dried coconuts, helping many people become billionaires...

The Thom River is full of water this season and flows smoothly. Mr. Tam Hung, also known as Vo Van Hung, a trader specializing in buying and selling dried coconuts at the Thom River floating coconut market, explained:

"Since July, when the price of dried coconuts dropped to 2,000 - 3,000 VND/fruit, the granaries were doing it on a limited basis to maintain relationships, so the market was a bit sparse. When the price of coconuts goes up, it becomes crowded, day and night there is a noisy sound of people and boats".

The largest coconut market in the West

 

Mr. Tam Hung is a veteran resident of Vinh Khanh (An Thanh commune, Mo Cay Nam district, Ben Tre province), where the famous Thom River coconut market is located. In 1990, at the age of over 20, Mr. Tam bought a boat to trade coconuts, and now has 32 years of experience in the profession.

"I remember before 1990, on the Thom River in this area, boats from different provinces gathered to buy and sell rice and dried coconuts, but the scale was not as large as today.

After 1990, the profession of making coconut fiber appeared in Vinh Khanh, leading to points of purchasing dried coconuts, peeling coconuts, and preliminary processing of coconut products. From there, the largest and most famous market specializing in buying and selling coconuts on the Thom River in the country was formed," Mr. Tam Hung happily said.

After 2000, coconut fiber production facilities sprang up like mushrooms on both sides of the Thom River. The demand for purchasing dried coconut shells increased rapidly, boats carrying coconut shells from other provinces could not keep up, so both sides of the Thom River (An Thanh commune, Mo Cay Nam district and Khanh Thanh Tan commune, Mo Cay Bac district). There are many establishments purchasing and processing dried coconut.

Every day, hundreds of large boats carrying dried coconuts in their shells from Tra Vinh, Vinh Long, Tien Giang, Can Tho and other provinces gather here to buy and sell.

Currently, the banks of the Thom River on the An Thanh side have hundreds of points for purchasing and processing products from dried coconuts and supplying coconut shells to more than 50 establishments, companies, and enterprises processing coconut fiber and other products from coconut fiber.

On the riverbank in Khanh Thanh Tan commune, there are more than 30 coconut fiber processing facilities and more than a hundred points of purchasing and processing coconut products and supplying coconut shells in operation.

On average, each coconut purchasing facility at the market consumes 4-5 tons of dried coconuts/day (about 6,000 fruits). At peak times, large establishments consume up to 12,000 dried coconuts per day and night.

According to estimates by granary owners, each year about 150 million dried coconuts are bought and sold at the Thom River coconut market. The market operates almost without any hours. Whenever the boat carrying raw coconuts arrives at the wharf, the owner of the granary calls the workers to focus on work.

From the coconut floating market and "coconut craft villages" in An Thanh and Khanh Thanh Tan, up to now the coconut market and the profession of processing dried coconuts and making coconut fiber have spread to neighboring communes such as Tan Hoi, Da Phuoc Hoi, Thanh Hoa. Thoi B... of Mo Cay Nam district and communes of Mo Cay Bac district, on a river section about 7km long.

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After peeling, coconut shells are classified for export - Photo: H.A.

Do not throw away anything

Listening to me asking about how to buy and sell at the Thom River coconut market, Mr. Nguyen Van Nam - who specializes in purchasing dried coconuts in Tra Vinh, Vinh Long, Can Tho... - laughed and said:

"I have been bringing coconuts to this market to buy and sell for more than ten years. I see that coconut owners and granary owners almost only use trust through long-standing acquaintances to transact. Yet, I have never seen the scene of the granary owner and coconut traders lose each other's hearts because of trading."

Mr. Nam added that when he first went to the Thom River coconut market to buy and sell, he was "shocked" because on both sides of the river there were hundreds of places to buy dried coconuts, all of them looked the same but almost none of them had signs.

People only say that the granary of Mr. A, Ms. B, Uncle Hai, Ms. Bay... are in that place, that place. After going to the wrong address many times, Mr. Nam realized that each dry coconut purchasing warehouse in the Thom River had dozens of boat owners (also coconut traders) who were the main suppliers of coconuts. When arriving at the market, boat owners must remember the location of the barn to dock at the correct wharf.

Previously, granary owners and traders agreed on coconut purchasing prices depending on the locality, for example, Ben Tre coconuts bought at a different price, Tra Vinh coconuts, Vinh Long and other provinces in the South of Hau River bought at a different price. In recent years, because the price of dried coconut has fluctuated up and down, traders and granary owners have agreed to buy coconuts based on quality (thickness, oil ratio and fat content of coconut meat) and fruit weight.

"The boat carrying coconuts arrived at the granary. The trader said what kind of coconuts were there, no matter the quality, the granary owner believed so, counted the fruit and paid.

If a coconut seller says one thing but has another quality, then next time don't expect to go to the coconut market to do business, because the granary owner only needs to say hello and that coconut trader will be boycotted by all the granaries in the area.

But traders in the West trade dried coconuts in large quantities and cannot sell them at the Thom River coconut market, so who can they sell them to?", Mr. Nam said.

According to Mr. Tam Hung, currently at the Thom River coconut market there is nothing made from discarded dried coconuts, all are sold for money. Whole dried coconuts are brought to the granary, the price depends on the time, sometimes up to 6,000 - 6,500 VND/fruit.

Coconut shells are peeled off, coconut fiber processing facilities buy them all, at peak price of coconut shells is up to 1 million VND/month (1 thousand is equal to 1,200 shells). Peeled coconuts (people in the industry call them seed coconuts) are classified, large fruits meet standards and are loaded onto boats and transported to Ben Tre port to be packed in containers for export to China, the price is one and a half times the price of buying shelled coconuts.

As for small fruits, coconut meat processing facilities supply businesses that produce coconut milk and desiccated coconut at a price of more than 10,000 VND/kg. The silk shell still attached to the thin coconut meat after peeling is sold for 5,000 VND/kg to coconut oil pressing facilities.

As for the coconut water, it is put into 30-liter barrels to sell to coconut jelly and coconut water production facilities for 10,000 VND/barrel. The coconut shells are sold to charcoal production facilities.

Taking me along the banks of the Thom River to see the coconut purchasing warehouses operating, Mr. Tam Hung happily said that currently the coconut processing and coir fiber production facilities of An Thanh and Khanh Thanh Tan attract and create stable jobs for more than 2,000 people in the commune and neighboring localities with income from several hundred thousand VND to nearly 1 million VND/day.

"It's easy to make money here, you just need to be diligent and work hard. Young men, women, and the elderly all have suitable jobs, earning from 200,000 VND to 500,000 - 700,000 VND/day. At the market Thom river coconut, there are easy jobs to make money, but there are also jobs that despite sweating and working hard to make money, you have to be very careful because if you make a mistake, you will shed blood," Mr. Tam Hung said.

Ben Tre province currently has about 77,000 hectares of coconut, accounting for more than 40% of the country's coconut area, with an output of 670,000 tons of fruit. Particularly in Mo Cay Nam district, where Thom River coconut market is located, the coconut area is 17,000 hectares, accounting for more than 77% of the district's land area, and is the locality with the second largest coconut growing area in Ben Tre province after Giong Trom district. --------------------------

The bamboo tree has a blade similar to a sharpened spear (a type of Western garden knife) over 20cm long, a wooden handle, a pointed tip, sharp enough to peel coconut shells but also easy to... draw human blood.

HUNG ANH

Source https://tuoitre.vn (Tuoi Tre Online)

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