“Dust clouds Viet Nam’s wood pellet boom”, 15 June 2026

Binh Dinh & Quang Ngai provinces, VIET NAM — Households living near a wood pellet factory in central Viet Nam’s Binh Dinh province rarely leave their doors open. When they do, yellow and black sawdust drifts inside, coating floors, furniture and nearly everything else by the end of the day.

“Even with the doors shut, the dust still finds its way inside. I have to clean all day,” said Nhung, sitting in a shuttered room lit by electric bulbs despite the bright tropical sunshine outside. “We can’t even dry clothes outdoors. The dust sticks to them and makes our skin itch.”

Nhung is preparing for heart surgery and says her doctor advised her to move somewhere cleaner and quieter. Her husband suffers from high blood pressure, which the family believes is linked to years of sleep disrupted by factory noise.

Across the fence from their home, a plant owned by Tin Nhan Co, Ltd operates nearly around the clock, with plumes of white smoke rising from its chimneys.

The company is a subsidiary of Ayo Biomass, one of Viet Nam’s leading wood pellet manufacturers, supplying markets in Japan and South Korea, which together account for 95% of Viet Nam’s wood pellet exports.

There, the pellets are burned in biomass and coal co-firing power plants that help generate electricity for two of Asia’s wealthiest economies.

According to Japanese import-export records, Tin Nhan’s customers supplied major energy-sector firms such as Sumitomo Corporation and Hanwa, Enviva, a US-based biomass company operating in Japan, and Pinnacle Renewable Energy, a Canadian producer acquired by Drax in 2021.

Trade records in South Korea show that Pinnacle Renewable Energy also purchased Tin Nhan’s products. Both Enviva and Drax, among the world’s largest biomass companies, have been cited for violating air-pollution limits in the US.

Our reporter contacted the companies mentioned above, including Ayo Biomass, via the email addresses provided on their websites, but most did not respond by the time of publication.

An Ayo Biomass representative told the reporter during a site visit that the facility’s air emissions were within safe limits.

In an email response to the reporter, Hanwa said that their transactions with the Ayo Biomass Group have been “extremely limited”, and “Hanwa is not one of the company [Ayo Biomass]’s major business partners…

At four large pellet plants visited for this story, residents described dense white smoke and burned odours drifting through their neighbourhoods, often strongest late at night, before dawn, and during the south-wind season from May to October.

Many reported symptoms, including sinus irritation, headaches, sore throats, eye irritation and sleep disruption, which they said were linked to emissions and noise from nearby factories. Some parents said they avoided taking infants outdoors when the factories were operating.

Last year, the state-owned Kon Tum Radio and Television Station reported that Kon Tum Green Energy discharged wood dust and smoke into nearby communities, where residents reported cases of sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, and other respiratory illnesses.

“There were days when the house was filled with suffocating smoke. I couldn’t breathe,” recalled Hai, 70, whose home sits behind the pellet plant of Nang Luong Xanh Kon Tum, or Kon Tum Green Energy Joint Stock Company, in Quang Ngai province.

Kon Tum Green Energy is a subsidiary of An Viet Phat, one of Viet Nam’s largest wood pellet exporters. Trade records before April this year indicate that most of the facility’s production was shipped to South Korean buyers, including Shihung Global.

According to a 2022 report by a South Korean NGO, An Viet Phat was also a supplier to major South Korean corporations, including Samsung C&T, SGC Energy, Shinhung Global and Hyundai LIVART…

In Quang Ngai province, Nang Luong Sang Tao A Chau, known as Asia Creative Energy (ACE), has faced years of complaints from residents over dust and emissions. According to Japanese import-export records data, the company is one of Viet Nam’s leading pellet manufacturers and supplies Japanese corporations, including Itochu, Mitsui and Sumitomo…