Old story, but always new
Recently, the price of oranges grown in Vinh Long province in particular, as well as most Mekong Delta provinces in general, has fallen dramatically, from around VND 12,000/kg before the Lunar New Year to just VND 2,000-3,000/kg , but still not sell There are many buyers.
Orange growers are deeply saddened as they are sure of the loss. The Director of the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), Nguyen Nhu Cuong, who witnessed this situation, reiterated in a reply to the press: “This is the consequence of massive development, if the price is high, they run around the plants. leads to a “surplus crisis” according to the planning of the authorities”.
In recent years, the area of tart orange trees in the Mekong Delta provinces has been continuously expanded. Picture: tsp.
In fact, it’s not just oranges that have been caught up in the current situation of falling prices, and the community is calling for “bailout” to ease farmers’ hardship. In the past, there were many cases in our country when fruit fell into excessive crisis, which caused farmers to “distort their face”. May contain dragon fruit, thai jackfruit… and some other plants like pepper, cashew, coffee…
Back in the time about 5-7 years ago when oranges were very expensive back then, the supply didn’t always correspond to the demand. The price of ready-made oranges can sometimes rise to 30, even 40,000 VND/kg, but still not enough to sell them. Before the oranges have such a price and many farmers believe that thanks to this harvest they will become rich, they do not think twice and invest in the cultivation of oranges.
The area of orange trees in particular and orange trees in general is constantly expanding, not only in the Mekong Delta provinces, the Southeast region, but also in many northern provinces of our country such as Son La, Hoa Binh, Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang… farmers also planted orange trees massively to replace some crops of low economic value.
When the area was small, oranges brought the farmers a very high income, but with massive area expansion, they became a burden for the farmers. Picture: tsp.
After 3 to 5 years, when the orange tree grows and starts harvesting, the orange yield has steadily increased. And as soon as this fruit is not widely exported, but only for domestic consumption, this will not be possible, and the production of oranges is in crisis, leading to the current price decline, which is difficult to avoid.
A word of warning for durian trees
The same applies to the pepper plant. Many people still remember that almost a decade ago the price of this agricultural product was so high that even pepper farmers could not expect to get rich so quickly thanks to pepper trees, when 1 kg of pepper had a small amount of money The price is more than 200,000 VND . Many households in the provinces like Gia Lai, Dak Nong, Dak Lak, Binh Phuoc, Ba Ria – Vung Tau…saw this massive deforestation of other crops like cashew, gum, acacia…to focus on growing pepper to transfer .
Pepper trees once “made a storm”, but then many farmers failed in this crop as well. Picture: MH.
The pepper area therefore grew rapidly in just a few years. As the area of pepper trees expanded and harvesting began, the price of pepper “began to fall incessantly”, and in recent years it has slipped and fallen deeply to only about 40,000 VND/kg – the level The price is considered unprofitable , even at a loss, which depresses pepper farmers, bring many farmers into dire straits, bankrupt for investment in pepper cultivation, but losses from peppers die because pests die.
Or, like more than a decade ago, when coffee was selling for premium prices in many provinces in the central highlands and southeast, coffee trees were “making a storm” and people were also vying to plant them to save money…and then, when coffee prices drop, they clear a small area to switch to other crops that they feel have greater economic value…
Tell the story of coffee trees, pepper trees … happened in the past, as well as many other fruit trees that always get caught in a vicious circle of falling prices to see the durian’s “alert” sign is the future price fall is inevitable if the direction of finding export consumables for this fruit is not planned soon and stable production will be maintained in the future!
Currently, durian is a “hot” crop that farmers are very keen to expand, but there is also a potential risk for the future unless accompanied by a rigorous and sustainable consumption organization. Picture: tsp.
It is known that durian fruit is extremely “prosperous” in recent years and still today because it is popular with consumers, high price and the durian acreage is also across provinces/cities in most countries was multiplied. However, for farmers who intend or are preparing to grow durian, they also need to think carefully and orient themselves, because the lesson about the current orange tree or pepper, coffee, dragon fruit … in the past is not old.
It is very dangerous for farmers to grow fruit trees and many other crops according to the trend, which means it is very dangerous to see this fruit tree, this type of agricultural product… being expensive and rushing after it because it is so There is an expensive product for sale in the market, but if there are more people selling the same product, consumption will surely decrease or even stagnate…
Therefore, in order to avoid a drop in product prices when “supply” exceeds “demand”, farmers must not only listen to the recommendations of the authorities, but also consistently pay attention to the type of fruit trees and crops they grow, in order to keep up with the trend not to fall into the tragedy of planting – falling prices – cut back …