The Century-Old Mangrove Charcoal Craft in the Cape Land (Dat Mui) 

Ca Mau, leveraging the advantages of its mangrove forests, sees residents in the districts of Ngoc Hien and Nam Can harvest mangrove wood to produce charcoal, selling thousands of tons across the region every year.

Since 1920, mangrove charcoal kilns first appeared in Cho Thu. Subsequently, hundreds of kilns sprouted up everywhere, with products sold throughout the six provinces of Southern Vietnam (Nam Ky Luc Tinh). However, over time, the craft gradually faded due to competition with other materials. To revive the traditional craft, in 2006, local authorities encouraged establishments to join cooperatives and collaborative groups to develop in a systematic and organized manner.

The row of charcoal kilns belonging to the charcoal processing cooperative.

Charcoal firing is the method residents use to utilize local mangrove trees, placing them into kilns and burning them over a long period to transform the wood into charcoal.

Ca Mau has more than 50,000 hectares of coastal mangrove forests, consisting primarily of mangrove trees, concentrated heavily in the Ngoc Hien and Nam Can districts. Currently, mangrove wood is purchased from forest farms with clear origins. Thanks to this, both the production volume and charcoal quality remain stable.

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," said Mrs. Le Hong Tham, 52, 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.

The charcoal kilns are sturdily built with bricks, shaped like a dome—resembling 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.

After one month of maintaining a continuous fire, the kiln mouth is completely sealed, left to cool for about 20 days, and then opened to harvest the charcoal. Each batch can yield 9-10 tons of mangrove charcoal.

Having been with the trade for 20 years, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, 57, Director of the 2/9 Charcoal Processing Cooperative, shared that most local charcoal kiln owners learned the craft from artisans in Hau Giang province. His family alone owns two kilns, producing about 16 tons of product each month. After deducting costs, Mr. Binh earns a profit of 25 million VND.

Workers harvesting charcoal after the firing period in the kiln.

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. 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.