Farmers in Gia Lai are in dire straits as the prices of green vegetables suddenly drop sharply, significantly affecting people's lives and production.
Before they could rejoice over the sharp increase in vegetable prices during the Lunar New Year, people in vegetable villages in Pleiku City (Gia Lai Province) have been in dire straits for over a week now because vegetable prices have dropped sharply and the consumption market has decreased.
Vegetable prices drop dramatically
For a long time, An Phu commune has been a large vegetable granary of Pleiku city with a growing area of over 250 hectares. These days, people here are in dire straits as the prices of green vegetables have suddenly dropped sharply, significantly affecting their lives and production.
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| An Phu Commune has long been a large vegetable granary of Pleiku City with a growing area of over 250 hectares. |
The nearly 1-acre coriander and green onion garden of Ms. Hoang Thi Hanh's family has seen few buyers these days. While 2 months ago, this vegetable was purchased by traders at a price of 6,000 - 8,000 VND/kg, for nearly 2 weeks now, the selling price at the garden has hovered around 1,000 - 2,000 VND/kg.
“Coriander and green onions are growing well this time, but the prices have dropped too much, and few people are asking to buy them, so we have to leave many beds until they are old and then pull them out. Even though the prices have dropped, people still try to grow them because we here mainly make vegetables,” Ms. Hanh shared.
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| People of An Phu commune harvest lettuce |
Growing more than 2 sao of cabbage, according to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam (Thong Nhat Ward, Pleiku City), over the past 10 days, the prices of vegetables and fruits have dropped sharply, especially leafy vegetables. "At this time last year, the prices of vegetables and fruits were very high. Now, the low prices have caused many households to suffer heavy losses. With the prices of vegetables in recent days, not including the cost of investing in fertilizers and pesticides, my family is definitely losing 3-4 million VND/sao" - Mr. Lam analyzed.
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| Over the past 10 days, the prices of vegetables and fruits have dropped sharply, especially leafy vegetables. |
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hiep - Chairman of the People's Committee of An Phu Commune - said: The whole commune has about 250 hectares of vegetables. This area is mainly converted from rice fields to vegetable fields. This year, vegetable prices have dropped sharply because the market in the Central provinces is oversupplied, so the demand for imported vegetables from Gia Lai has decreased.
"To support vegetable growers, the commune's associations and organizations have mobilized support for part of the production costs and then mobilized people to harvest and transport vegetables and tubers to supply to military units that are performing the task of helping people eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses in the area to use as food for daily meals," Ms. Hiep shared.
Poor consumer market
According to many farmers in vegetable growing areas, one of the reasons for this situation is the change in the market, when after Tet, the demand for vegetables decreases while vegetable production increases sharply thanks to favorable weather. This causes farmers to suffer losses and lack funds to invest in the next crop.
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| Falling vegetable prices cause farmers to suffer losses and lack funds to invest in the next crop. |
Not only are prices low, but the vegetable consumption market is also quite slow. Many types of vegetables are even in a state of "unsold" so retailers do not dare to import large quantities.
Ms. Le Thi Ngan - a vegetable vendor at Pleiku Night Market - said: "It is estimated that the amount of vegetables consumed each day has decreased by nearly 30% compared to before. Many types of leafy vegetables cannot be sold in time, and the next day they wilt and have to be thrown away. If we import, we lose money, if we don't import, we lose customers."
At the markets, although vendors are constantly offering their services, there are still more sellers than buyers. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh, a vegetable vendor at Phu Dong Market (Pleiku City) lamented: "Usually after Tet, food and vegetable prices increase, but this year the prices have decreased a lot compared to before Tet. For more than half a month now, the amount of vegetables sold every day has been quite slow, although the quality and prices are reasonable."
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| Vegetable vendors at Pleiku Night Market |
Ms. Phan Thi Hoai Thuong - Vice President of the Farmers' Association of Pleiku City - informed: To reduce the risk of vegetable farmers losing money, all levels and farmers' associations in Pleiku City have been actively contacting partners and consumption channels to expand output to help farmers. Propagating to vegetable growers to reduce output to avoid producing a lot but selling little. Along with that, the Farmers' Associations of wards also stand up to help, posting vegetables on social networking sites to help people consume.
Gia Lai province aims to develop and expand the vegetable area by 30,000 hectares by 2030; build a safe, concentrated vegetable material area, ensuring traceability of about 9,000 - 10,000 hectares. Forming concentrated safe vegetable production areas applying high technology, practicing production according to VietGAP, GlobalGAP, organic standards with a cultivated land area of about 700 hectares. Gia Lai's vegetable output reaches about 1.3 - 1.4 million tons, of which the vegetable output for processing is about 55,000 - 60,000 tons. Over 95% of inspected and tested vegetable samples meet safety standards; the proportion of safe, concentrated vegetable area, ensuring traceability is about 30 - 33% of the total vegetable area of the province; the value of vegetable export turnover reaches about 55 - 60 million USD. |
Source: https://congthuong.vn/nguoi-dan-gia-lai-khoc-rong-vi-gia-rau-xanh-rot-the-tham-376295.html
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