"Never been as unsaleable as this year"
On Le Van Luong Street, on the days leading up to the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin, both sides of the sidewalk are filled with flower and ornamental plant vendors, most of which sell kumquat trees for Tet.
Recorded on February 4 (December 25) - the last Sunday of the year of the Cat, in contrast to the bustling trading atmosphere of previous years, many traders here were sad when customers were few and goods sold slowly.
Many kumquat shops on Le Van Luong Street (Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi) simultaneously hung up clearance signs from the afternoon of February 4.
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According to Thanh Nien reporters, from the afternoon of February 4, many mini kumquat and bonsai kumquat selling points along both sides of Le Van Luong Street suddenly hung up clearance sale signs or sold goods at the same price with the lowest price being 100,000 VND/pot, the highest being 250,000 VND/pot.
Preparing for the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin, Mr. Ha Son Binh (from Phu Tho) imported more than 1,000 kumquat pots from Van Giang (Hung Yen) and Tu Lien (Tay Ho District, Hanoi). However, after nearly 10 days of opening for sale, less than 30% of the kumquats were sold. With only 5 days left until Tet and still about 700 pots left, Mr. Binh decided to sell off his stock to quickly recover his capital.
Starting from the afternoon of February 4, Mr. Binh's booth sells Van Giang kumquats at the same price of 100,000 VND/pot, and Tu Lien kumquats at a higher price with 2 types at 150,000 VND/pot and 250,000 VND/pot.
Every day, he can only sell more than a dozen kumquat jars while importing more than 1,000 jars, so Mr. Ha Son Binh is forced to sell his goods to quickly recover his capital.
"Compared to previous years, the mini kumquat pots and bonsai kumquat trees that are currently on clearance sale are priced at 300,000 - 500,000 VND/pot and are still selling very well. This year, on the highest day, we sold more than 20 pots, the rest of the time we only sell about 10 pots a day, very few people buy. In my many years of selling kumquat trees during Tet, I have never seen it as difficult to sell as this year," said Mr. Binh.
Sell off early to salvage money on vases and jars
Opening a kumquat selling point on Le Van Luong Street, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham from Van Giang Town (Van Giang District, Hung Yen) said that every year her family brings kumquats here to sell for Tet. Normally, every year, from the 15th of December onwards (ie December 15th of the lunar calendar), Hanoians will be bustling to buy kumquats to play Tet. The closer to Tet, the more people buy. This year, it is the opposite, even though it is after December 23rd - Ong Cong, Ong Tao festival, the number of people coming to see and buy kumquats is very sparse.
According to Ms. Tham, to grow a bonsai kumquat tree or a mini kumquat tree to market, gardeners must invest a large amount of capital. The biggest cost is the cost of buying vases and jars to grow kumquats. Unable to produce by themselves, gardeners must order from pottery villages. The price of each common vase or jar is about a few tens of thousands of dong, but for those made according to the mascot of each year, the vase or jar model is a breed of animal, stylized flower vases... the price is up to hundreds of thousands of dong.
Many kumquat garden owners accept to sell their products to recoup the money spent on buying ceramic vases and jars to grow bonsai kumquats and mini kumquats.
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"After growing and taking care of kumquat pots all year, now we have to accept selling them at 100,000 - 150,000 VND/pot, so we won't make any profit. We sell at this low price just to recoup the money we spent on vases and jars we bought at the beginning of the year," said Ms. Tham.
Sharing with Thanh Nien , Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong, a kumquat trader on Le Van Luong shook her head in disappointment as she pointed to a batch of kumquats newly shipped from a garden in Hung Yen that were displayed on the sidewalk. Ms. Phuong said that the difficult economic situation and people saving on shopping were anticipated by the traders, but they did not expect "the kumquat market to be so gloomy and miserable."
According to Ms. Phuong, kumquat is a traditional ornamental plant that many families buy to play during Tet, usually every year this will be a very popular ornamental plant item. It is predicted that this year people will save and tighten their shopping spending. Compared to Tet 2023, kumquat vendors have proactively reduced prices by 20-30%, but the number of buyers has decreased sharply, causing all stalls to fall into a state of sluggishness.
A kumquat selling point on Le Van Luong street hangs a sign selling kumquats for 100,000 VND/pot.
"Bonsai kumquats and mini kumquats, beautiful and unique items, still have customers buying them at high prices, but not many. The rest are mostly popular and common items that sell well every year, but this year sales are very slow, so depending on the amount of inventory, traders will calculate the time to sell off and reduce prices to sell out before Tet," said Ms. Phuong.
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