Why does Vietnam increase areca nut imports?

Figures from the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association show that in the first four months of this year, our country spent 11.33 million USD (about 290 billion VND) to import areca nuts from other countries, an increase of 1,303% over the same period last year.

The Chinese market is the main reason

With the above increase, areca nut now accounts for 1.43% of the total value of fruit and vegetable imports in Vietnam. At the same time, this item also becomes one of the top 10 fruits and nuts with the highest import value.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre Online on June 28, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said that recently, the domestic supply of areca nuts has not kept up with demand, especially not enough to supply the Chinese market.

"Currently, China has about 60 million people chewing betel and areca nuts, not to mention that from last year to this year, areca nuts have been produced in large quantities to meet this market demand.

However, areca growing areas such as Hainan Island were affected by natural disasters, so there was not enough raw areca material, forcing China to increase imports from Vietnam, and Vietnam to increase imports from countries such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines... to meet domestic production needs and re-export," Mr. Nguyen explained.

According to statistics from the smart data platform Metric.vn, with the keyword "areca candy", in the past few months, sellers on many e-commerce sites have earned billions of dong.

The unit's report shows that most of the areca candy is produced by Chinese enterprises. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why areca candy products consumed in Vietnam are mainly imported from China.

Areca nut prices unstable, areca nut growers at risk?

Previously, in August 2024, Vietnam exported more than 9.28 million USD worth of areca nuts in just 1 month, but market instability caused the value to drop sharply afterwards. Specifically, in the first 4 months of 2025, Vietnam exported about 1 million USD, much lower than the 34.9 million USD in the same period in 2024.

Similarly, at its peak last year, the price of fresh areca nuts (per bunch) was up to 80,000 - 100,000 VND/kg, but then gradually decreased, at times traders bought for only 15,000 - 20,000 VND/kg.

Because the price of fresh areca nuts has remained high at many times, in recent months, farmers in many provinces and cities have rushed to increase new plantings, pushing the price of areca nuts higher than previous years, currently at a common level of 30,000 - 150,000 VND/tree depending on size.

According to a representative of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, although many products have been researched and produced, the main consumer market for Vietnamese areca nuts is currently China, while this product has not yet been officially exported to China, leading to an unstable market and fluctuating prices.

Therefore, if the area is expanded rapidly but not accompanied by increased deep processing and without calculating market expansion, the Vietnamese areca industry is at risk of oversupply and price reduction in the future.