slow purchasing power
At this time, along with urgent care, Mr. Truong Minh Hien (Long Ho district, Vinh Long province) is also looking for an outlet for his family's Tet apricot garden. According to Mr. Hien, this year, the economy has shown more positive signs but there are still difficulties, traders are not bold enough to buy Tet apricot.
“Through some traders who came to see Tet apricot trees in recent days, I clearly felt their hesitation. If in the past, traders often cared about the size, shape, age of the apricot trees... now they ask a lot about the price, “weighing and measuring” carefully before deciding to buy,” said Mr. Hien.
This year, Mr. Pham Thanh Quan (O Mon District, Can Tho City) mainly grows marigolds, chrysanthemums, and Taiwanese chrysanthemums with about 1,500 baskets to supply the Tet market. The quantity is the same as last year, but Mr. Quan estimates that the cost of agricultural materials is 15% higher. Partly because the price of fertilizer on the market has increased, partly because of unfavorable weather, Tet flowers need more care.
The cost of producing Tet flowers has increased along with the decrease in purchasing power and competition for output, causing Mr. Quan to be under a lot of pressure. With 1,500 flower baskets, this gardener has only been able to sell about 400 baskets to traders, the rest are still waiting for buyers.
Reduce lot rentals, increase online sales
Faced with competition in output and slow purchasing power, Mr. Hien is shifting from direct sales to combining with online business to increase consumption for Tet apricot trees.
“For about a year now, I have learned how to sell mai flowers on social networks. Although I still lack experience and promotion skills, the number of customers is quite potential, not only in the Western provinces but also in the Central and Northern regions. This Tet season, I will focus on selling at the garden combined with online instead of renting lots at the market,” said Mr. Hien.
Not renting a plot helps Mr. Hien save on costs for land, transportation, care, and maintenance after taking the trees out of the land.
Selling at low prices would not be profitable, and hesitating would likely result in unsold Tet flowers, so Mr. Quan boldly applied online business with the support of his daughter. This form of business is expected to help Mr. Quan expand his customer base more than at present.
“My daughter specializes in selling knitted flowers on social media, so she posted about Tet flowers for me. Although I haven’t closed any orders yet because it’s still quite early and the flowers haven’t bloomed yet, I can see the interest of customers when they text me to inquire about prices and care instructions,” Mr. Quan said.
Along with online business, Mr. Quan will also rent lots to sell at the market but with a smaller quantity than last year. The reason is that because he is new to online sales, this gardener still lacks experience in preserving flowers for long-distance transportation: "To ensure the quality of flowers when they reach customers, I only sell to locations that can deliver on the same day. If this form of business is stable, I will definitely learn more about how to introduce and preserve products for long-distance transportation and sell other agricultural products of the family."
