The above information was released at a press conference to inform about the 100-year Tra Vinh Wax Coconut Festival and the 2024 Vu Lan Thang Hoi Week in Cau Ke district, organized by the People's Committee of Tra Vinh province on the afternoon of August 12.

Mr. Le Thanh Binh, Vice Chairman of Tra Vinh Provincial People's Committee, said that this is a special event held for the first time to honor and promote wax coconut - a rare specialty of the province.

"The event also affirms the efforts and determination to bring products processed from wax coconut to the world market, creating conditions for trading goods, connecting supply and demand, calling for investment in the agricultural processing and tourism sectors of the province," said Mr. Binh.

The 100-year Tra Vinh Wax Coconut Festival and the Vu Lan Thang Hoi Week in Cau Ke district in 2024 will take place for 7 days, from August 25 to 31 in Cau Ke district with 12 main activities.

Activities include: opening ceremony, seminar on wax coconut trees, tourism discussion, lion dance festival, sports activities, cuisine...

In particular, the opening program of Vu Lan Thang Hoi Week is associated with the announcement of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism certifying this festival as a national intangible cultural heritage.

"This series of events is also an opportunity for people inside and outside the province to experience, visit, have fun, entertain, and shop. It is also an opportunity for localities and businesses to introduce, promote, search for markets, promote investment, trade, tourism...", said the Vice Chairman of Tra Vinh Provincial People's Committee.

According to the plan, the above event is chaired by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the province and coordinated with the People's Committee of Cau Ke district and related departments and branches with an estimated budget of 3.5 billion VND. Of which, the province plans to spend 2 billion VND and socialize the rest.

Wax coconuts are grown a lot in Cau Ke district, Tra Vinh province because of the suitable soil conditions. Notably, not all wax coconut trees produce wax coconuts and not all coconuts in a bunch have wax. Therefore, the value of wax coconuts always surpasses that of other types of coconuts many times over.

Wax coconut has no water, the inside of the coconut contains a thick coconut meat to meet the highest standards. If there is water, it will be very little and this water must be thick, with a sweet taste.

Previously, people still used the wax coconut meat to grind with sugar, milk or add durian, cocoa to use as smoothies, or this coconut meat can be eaten directly. In addition, wax coconut is currently being processed by some establishments in Tra Vinh into wax coconut candy, dried wax coconut, wax coconut fibers, nutritional cakes...

With these rare characteristics, the market price of wax coconut currently fluctuates from 120,000 - 150,000 VND/fruit, 12 - 15 times higher than that of regular coconuts.