IDE has created a stable, high-value market for more than 600 small coconut producers by adapting coconut processing technology to Vietnam and linking small farmers to a model coconut-drying factory.

In 1993, raw coconut fetched such low prices in Vietnam that small farmers in many areas were cutting down coconut trees on their land, leading to increased flooding and other environmental problems. At the same time, despite an abundant natural supply of the raw product, Vietnam was importing dried coconut for confectionary uses.

Over three years, with the support of the Swedish Red Cross, IDE:

Now independent, the processing enterprise employs 80 men and women, purchases more than 1.65 million coconuts per year from more than 600 coconut farming families, supplies 25 tons of desiccated coconut per month to confectionery manufactures across Vietnam, exports $300,000 of dried coconut annually to five countries, and donates 20% of its profits to a local orphanage.

The goal was not simply to set up a factory, but to stimulate the private sector around an industry. IDE made the input technologies and the processing methods public information; so far, four additional producers and two foreign joint venture investments have emerged as a result.