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Charcoal Making in Hau Giang: “Black Gold” from Mangrove Forests

Hau Giang, a land of nine river branches in the Mekong Delta, is not only famous for its lush fruit orchards but also for being the cradle of a long-standing traditional craft: charcoal making, especially charcoal made from mangrove wood from mangrove forests.

A craft closely associated with the waterways of the Western region

Charcoal making in Hau Giang is mainly concentrated in communes of Nga Bay City such as Dai Thanh, Tan Thanh, and Chau Thanh district (Phu Tan commune). For decades, handcrafted charcoal kilns in dome or cylindrical shapes have become a familiar sight along the rivers and canals. The main raw material is mangrove wood – a characteristic tree of coastal and estuarine mangrove forests, which is highly durable, produces little smoke, and yields high-quality charcoal.

The traditional charcoal making process requires skill and experience accumulated over many generations:

Charcoal production used to be the main source of income for hundreds of households, providing employment for thousands of local workers. Hau Giang mangrove charcoal is favored for its high quality, low ash content, long burning time, suitability for grilling, heating, and export.

Ca Mau, Vietnam, possesses a vast and sustainable source of mangrove forests. With over 120,000 hectares of mangrove forests planted and managed according to plan, Ca Mau provides a stable, consistent, and traceable source of firewood from legally planted forests. Thanks to a scientific harvesting cycle (4-7 years), combined with replanting and protection, this resource not only ensures long-term sustainability but also contributes to protecting the mangrove ecosystem, preventing coastal erosion, and mitigating climate change.

Ca Mau mangrove charcoal is a renowned, high-quality product, produced from sustainably sourced plantation forests. The traditional but tightly controlled production process includes the following main steps:

After filling the kiln with wood, the mouth of the kiln is sealed, leaving only an opening of about one square meter for lighting the fire and four holes for the smoke to escape.

The wood must be packed tightly together so that the charcoal turns out beautiful and less prone to breaking, adding that it takes three people about 4 hours to fill a kiln with wood.

The charcoal kilns are sturdily built with bricks, shaped like an inverted cone or an upturned hat, standing about 4 meters high with a diameter of 5-7 meters, holding up to 50 cubic meters of wood. Each cubic meter of mangrove wood can yield 180-200 kg of charcoal.

Skilled craftsmen look at the smoke escaping or sticking to the kiln walls to adjust the fire or determine whether the charcoal is "cooked" or not.

After one month of maintaining a continuous fire, the kiln mouth is completely sealed, left to cool for about 20 days, and Then, the kiln is opened, and the charcoal is selected to be black, shiny, brittle, and with little ash, discarding any immature charcoal and impurities.. Each batch can yield 9-10 tons of mangrove charcoal.

Workers harvesting charcoal after the firing period in the kiln.

With an average burning time of over two hours, mangrove charcoal is considered the best black wood charcoal, and many people seek to buy it.

They are then sorted, packaged, and quality-checked before being sent to markets or exported.

Sourced from sustainable plantations and backed by years of experience, Ca Mau mangrove wood has the advantage of burning slowly, producing less smoke and ash, making it highly favored for grilling and industrial use. This process not only brings economic value but also contributes to protecting the mangrove ecosystem of the southernmost tip of Vietnam.

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