Present in Chi Khe commune, Con Cuong district these days, we saw some acacia purchasing points quite quiet. Mr. Tran Van Minh - a professional acacia purchasing owner shared: In the past, trucks carrying acacia in and out were bustling, each day the facility purchased 30-40 tons of acacia, but from the beginning of December 2023 until now, the price of acacia suddenly dropped, from 1.2 million VND/ton to 950,000 VND to 1 million VND/ton, so many people did not cut down trees to sell because they were waiting for the price to go up.
Ms. Vi Thi Tinh in Chi Khe commune confided: Her family has 2 hectares of acacia trees that are ready to be harvested. She planned to cut them down and sell them to get money to spend during Tet, but the price was too cheap, less than 1 million VND/ton. After deducting expenses, it was a loss.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lam - Director of Con Cuong Forestry Company added: Every month, the unit purchases over 200 tons of acacia to process acacia veneer for domestic consumption, but in recent months, acacia veneer has dropped sharply, from 3.2 million VND/ton to 2.5 million VND/ton. That price is not enough to cover production costs, so the unit only operates at a low level to retain workers.
Mr. Lo Van Ly - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Con Cuong district added: In 2023, the price of raw acacia is unstable, fluctuating erratically, causing acacia growers to worry. Currently, acacia purchasing points in the district are purchasing in small amounts, and some points have even temporarily stopped purchasing due to unsold products.
The current difficulty is that if raw acacia cannot be sold, people will not have money to cover the Tet holiday at the end of the year. Not to mention, some places temporarily stopping acacia exploitation also leads to consequences such as many acacia cutting and loading workers are unemployed, and the acacia transport system also has to "lie down" waiting for work.
Currently, there are many acacia wood processing facilities in the province that are operating at a low level. For example, at the acacia wood processing facility in Tan Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, all production lines are temporarily suspended. The owner of this facility shared: The unit mainly produces laminated wood panels for domestic consumption, previously the price was 10 million VND/ m3 , now it has only decreased to 7 million VND/ m3 . The price is cheap but difficult to sell, so the unit still has an inventory of over 2,100 m3 of laminated wood products; in particular, the company used to have over 50 employees, but now it only maintains 20 employees.
At this time, Song Hieu Forestry and Agriculture One Member Limited Liability Company is also holding nearly 1,000 m3 of laminated wood products in stock, worth over 10 billion VND. The company representative said that these products have long been mainly exported to the US and Binh Duong province. However, the past few months have been very difficult in terms of consumption, the unit has had to find small orders to consume domestic products, maintaining the support of over 100 workers.
According to some experts, the reason for the unstable price of acacia raw materials in recent times is that the world market is focusing on product quality. In particular, large timber forests with FSC (sustainable forest certification) certification will be prioritized by businesses for consumption. Meanwhile, most of the acacia area in the province is small timber forests, most of which exploit young acacia, which does not ensure the quality of goods for processing.
To gradually overcome the difficulties, Con Cuong district is coordinating with relevant departments, sectors and enterprises to build over 2,500 hectares of FSC (sustainable forest certification) certified forests in 6 communes including Bong Khe, Chi Khe, Don Phuc, Thach Ngan, Mau Duc, Chau Khe. Hopefully, the forests that achieve FSC certification will be committed to be consumed by enterprises in the future, so that people will not have to worry about unstable acacia prices or traders forcing down prices.
According to the report of the Provincial Forest Protection Department, from 2022 to present, Nghe An province has 26,184 hectares of forest certified by FSC out of a total of 170,000 hectares of raw material forest. In the long term, Nghe An needs to direct localities and related sectors to speed up progress and remove difficulties and obstacles in the process of implementing sustainable forest certification. Being granted FSC certification will have the benefit of increasing economic value, especially when businesses sign contracts to purchase products at stable prices.
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