According to records, grade 1 oranges are weighed by traders at the garden for only 2,000 VND/kg. At this selling price, many farmers harvest sparingly or do not harvest at all for fear of losing money on labor.
Farmer Pham Van Dang (Thong Hoa commune, Cau Ke district, Tra Vinh province), who has experience in growing oranges, said: with the current purchase price of 2,000 VND per kilo of oranges, gardeners do not make a profit, and even lose money on materials. If they hire workers to harvest, they are afraid they will not have money to pay.
Mr. Dang confided that despite the unprecedented low prices, very few traders are coming to buy. “My family only knows how to pick oranges to sell in small quantities or wholesale to juice shops, at 5,000 VND per kilo of oranges,” he said.
Like Mr. Dang, many orange farmers in Tra Vinh are restless because of low prices, unstable output, and no traders coming to buy.
Mr. Ho Van Hai in Thanh Phu commune (Cau Ke district, Tra Vinh province) said: "My family has 10 hectares of land growing oranges, while the investment cost is billions of dong, each kilo of oranges is sold for only 2,000 VND, not enough money to buy a bunch of vegetables, the economy is in difficulty".
Farmers growing pomelos in Tra Vinh are suffering heavy losses because the price is only 2,000 VND/kg and very few traders come to buy.
Huynh Ba Nhanh added that before 2021, the price of oranges was always between 18,000-35,000 VND/kg, farmers earned nearly 1 billion VND/ha.
If in previous years, many farmers were "citrus billionaires", in the past 2 years, many farmers have been working moderately to pay bank interest, because output is difficult and input material prices have increased "skyrocketingly".
Mr. Nhanh said that the reason for the shocking drop in orange prices is because oranges are only consumed domestically, and storms are also the reason for the slowdown in orange consumption.
In addition, the area of orange cultivation in the Mekong Delta and some provinces in the Southeast region has continuously increased, leading to supply exceeding demand.
It is known that Vinh Long is the "capital" of oranges with an area of over 17,000 hectares; followed by Hau Giang with an area of 9,000 hectares and Tien Giang with over 5,000 hectares. In Tra Vinh, in 2024, there will be 4,700 hectares of orange growing area, of which over 3,400 hectares are bearing fruit, with an output of nearly 180,000 tons/year.
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