Women in the ‘land of coconuts’ in Ben Tre Province face the risk of cutting open their hands daily to earn their living by removing the fibrous husks of coconuts.

Part 1: Born to climbPart 2: Female blacksmiths keep forges burning Part 3: Women earn their living on the point of a knife

The women of Ben Tre have a unique way of dehusking coconuts. They use a large knife the height of their hips that stands erect with its handle mounted on the ground. A coconut fruit is firmly pressed on the pointed sharp blade so that the point of the knife is almost touching the shell inside. The fruit is then twisted to separate the fibrous husk from the shell.

The fruit is lifted up for another stab and twist. After four twists, the fibrous husk and shell of the coconut fruit is separated.

The dehusking of 200 coconut fruits pays just VND22,000, or around one US dollar. Eighty percent of those who dehusk coconut fruits are women.

Iron hands

During high tide, big boats carrying thousands of coconuts land at numerous ‘coconut ports’ along the banks of the Ham Luong River in Mo Cay Nam and Mo Cay Bac districts.

Each port has a long house with only a roof and no walls to facilitate transport and the loading and unloading of goods. Under the roof, many stakes are mounted on the ground to which long knives are attached.

When a boat is about to land, the women become alert and put on their aprons and gloves to prepare to work.

Dehusking coconuts  is not difficult but must be ‘decisive, fast, and accurate’, said Dang Thi Bich Lieu, who is the best at dehusking at the Tu Dung coconut ground. The women must use their hands, shoulders, and hips to press the fruit on the sharp point and twist to remove the fibrous husk.

It must be ‘decisive’ to make the sharp point pierce through the husk, ‘fast’ as one is paid per coconut, and ‘accurate’ to avoid hand cuts and injury, Lieu added. Your hands could be slashed open by the slightest mistake.

Mr. Tu Dung, owner of the Tu Dung coconut ground, said, “no one is totally safe when dehusking coconuts. Over a dozen women have been cut here.

The size of the knife blade differs, depending on the size and posture of the women.

“Each woman gets used to a certain knife. Several men of the boat crew insisted on trying to dehusk a coconut out of curiosity and cut their hands in doing so, although they were warned of the risk involved.

“Some men also remove coconut husks here but they are not as patient and tough as women. Foreign tourists visit and often gesture their thumbs up to say ‘good, good, great women’ before taking photographs of the working women here.”

Although the husk removal of 200 fruits pays only VND22,000, each woman earns VND200,000 on average a day.

A good job

Wiping the sweat from her forehead during a break, Ms. Nguyen Thi Quyen said, “Now I can remove coconut husks for an entire day. During the first days of dehusking, my wrists, shoulders, and hips hurt so much I couldn’t sleep. But I became used to it after six months.”

Quyen said she did different jobs in Ho Chi Minh City ten years ago but now she opts to remove coconut husks so she can stay at home with her parents and earn a stable income.

Another woman, Ms. Lieu, is called the youngest even though she is 41. She joked that ‘I prolong my youth by sweating here every day with this knife.” She said she kept pigs, made and sold cakes, and now prefers dehusking coconut.

Ms. Pham Thi Chep, 63, is the oldest woman at the Tu Dung coconut ground. With 20 years of experience, she admitted she can’t do it as quickly as before but is still able to remove 2,000 coconut husks a day.

The bonus of dehusking near their home is that they can prepare meals and take care of their families while earning money, one of the women said.