Giving information at the press conference, Vice Chairman of the Ben Tre Province People’s Committee Nguyen Huu Lap said that, the fifth Ben Tre Coconut Festival 2019 will be held between November 14 and 20.
The event is expected to introduce coconut brand and coconut-based products to domestic and foreign visitors, and honor the local specialty and outstanding individuals having great contributions to developing coconut industry.
The festival also offers opportunities for Ben Tre to tap into potentials to export the local fruit while helping locals to raise their awareness on value and position of the country’s coconut industry.
Besides, via the festival, Ben Tre wishes to attract more investment in coconut cultivation, processing, and consumption as well as tourism development.
During the festival, a wide range of activities are scheduled, including coconut cuisine festival, exhibition of coconut products, conference on coconut value chain, and a culture-art-tourism week featuring a string of events like art performances, tour operation and folk games.
The first coconut festival was held in 2009, attracting the participation of people. In 2012, the third Ben Tre coconut festival was held at the national scale under the Government’s approval.
Ben Tre province is home to 163,000 households involved in farming 71,000 ha of coconut tree, or half of Vietnam’s coconut-growing land. They produce 800 million coconuts. The locality also earns average US$200 million from coconut exports each year, coconut production value accounts for 20% of the provincial total.
