Cassava prices plummeted the most in 10 years

Good harvest, bad price

According to statistics from the Customs Department, in the first two months of this year, our country exported nearly 723,800 tons of cassava and cassava products, with a value of 233.7 million USD. Compared to the same period last year, although the volume of exported cassava increased by 14.9%, the value decreased sharply by 19%.

Notably, the average export price of this item decreased by 28.5% compared to the same period in 2024, to 327 USD/ton.

In the past two months, China remained the largest customer, accounting for 94% of our country’s cassava export turnover. Accordingly, Vietnamese enterprises exported nearly 693,000 tons of cassava and cassava products to China, earning 219.6 million USD.

Cassava prices have fallen dramatically, so many places do not want to hire people to harvest cassava. Illustration: IT.

According to the Vietnam Cassava Association, due to low consumption demand, high inventory at Chinese ports, slow consumption, while the supply in Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos is abundant, making it easy for this billion-people country to "squeeze prices" to buy cassava at dirt cheap prices.

In Muong Lat, Thanh Hoa - where cassava is the main crop - there is a phenomenon of harvested cassava being packed and piled up on the road without any traders coming to buy it. Even when cassava is in season, people do not want to pull out the tubers to sell, because the income is not enough to pay for labor costs. Currently, the price of cassava on the market has dropped sharply, to only 1,500 VND/kg, and at times even dropped to 900 VND/kg.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Muong Lat district, the district has more than 3,000 hectares of cassava, which helps people earn more than 100 billion VND each year. This year, although cassava output is higher, prices have dropped sharply to a record low in many years, causing revenue from this crop to be estimated at only 50-60 billion VND, a decrease of 40-50 billion VND compared to a few years ago.

In Tay Ninh, cassava traders also shared that cassava prices have never been as low as they are now. Fresh cassava is purchased by warehouses at 1,900 VND/kg to 2,000 VND/kg for cassava with 30 points; the fewer points the cassava has, the lower the purchase price. This is the lowest price in the past 10 years. The current price of dried cassava slices is about 3,600 VND/kg. Every year, the price of fresh cassava fluctuates around 3,000 VND/kg, but this year the price has plummeted. If this price continues, cassava farmers will have difficulty making a profit after harvesting.

In general, the price of fresh cassava in the Northern, Central and Central Highlands provinces all have a sharp downward trend compared to last year. The reason is that farmers in many areas have spontaneously expanded their cassava growing areas without signing contracts with purchasing units, leading to a situation of “good harvest, low price”.

Why does the market fluctuate?

China is currently Vietnam’s largest cassava export market with over 90% market share. Changes in demand and prices in this market have had a strong impact on Vietnam’s cassava industry. Cassava starch exports to China and Europe are also slower than the same period last year.

Cassava harvest but low price makes people face difficulties. Illustration photo: IT

The demand for cassava chips in the Chinese market continues to decline and has been going on since 2023. This sharp decline in cassava chip imports is largely due to reduced demand from Chinese cassava processing plants. In addition, low corn prices have caused many factories to replace cassava chips with corn.

This has caused many difficulties for cassava processing and production factories in Vietnam. Although it is the main crop season, many cassava factories have plans to stop their machines early. Meanwhile, nationwide, due to the cassava area in the 2024-2025 crop being estimated to increase by more than 10% compared to the previous crop in 2023-2024, there is still a large amount of unharvested fresh cassava tubers, which is expected to be forced to switch to making cassava chips or leave the cassava plants for the next crop.

Faced with the current difficulties of the cassava industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has approved the Project on Sustainable Development of the Cassava Industry to 2030, with a vision to 2050. The target by 2030 is for the national fresh cassava output to reach about 11.5 - 12.5 million tons; the cassava growing area using quality standard varieties will reach 40-50%; the cassava growing area applying sustainable farming processes will reach 50%. By 2030, the export turnover of cassava and cassava products will reach 1.8 - 2.0 billion USD.

According to Thanh Huyen (TPO)

Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/gia-san-lao-doc-manh-nhat-10-nam-qua-post316932.html