The name

The sarus crane is the tallest flying bird in the world. A population of them winters at Tram Chim, in the Plain of Reeds, a few hours from the coconut yards of Ben Tre.

It is grey and quiet. That is most of why it was chosen. The country already has a set of images attached to it, and none of them describe a basket.

  • A shallow wetland with sarus cranes and other waterbirds spread across the flooded ground.
  • A sarus crane standing in a meadow, full body in profile, grey plumage and bare red head.
  • Head and upper neck of a sarus crane in close view, bare red skin and long grey bill.

Wintering ground, bird, head.

Why Vietnam

A coconut processing yard, shells and husks piled high, a worker sorting them by hand at the foot of the pile.
Coconut yard, Mekong delta

Because the materials and the skill are already there, at volume, and have been for a long time. Water hyacinth is cleared from Vietnamese waterways because it blocks them. Ben Tre processes coconut on an industrial scale and treats the shell as waste. Both facts predate the brand and will outlast it.

What is missing in that chain is rarely the making. It is the specification, the consistency between one run and the next, and someone on the buying side who knows what a heated American house does to a basket in February.

Factories working in these materials are welcome to get in touch. What a quote has to contain is set out on its own page.