The supply of vegetables and tubers for the Lunar New Year will depend on the weather situation in the coming time.
Vegetable prices increase nearly equal to meat prices
According to Lao Dong in central areas, many buyers said they were forced to tighten spending when vegetable prices increased by one and a half times, or even double. Ms. Dang Thi Thai (Nhan Chinh Ward, Hanoi) shared that last week, many types of vegetables have increased sharply, normal Malabar spinach she bought for only about 15,000 VND, now it has increased to 25,000 VND, cauliflower is also much more expensive than last week. However, she still chooses to buy at the market because it is close to home, easy to choose and the price is still cheaper than at the supermarket. At the end of the year, the demand for food increased, so every time she went to the market, she had to calculate carefully to not exceed her family budget.
In that situation, Ms. Kim Anh (Tu Liem ward, Hanoi) had to pay 70,000 VND for 1kg of tomato - the highest ever. According to her, the price of some vegetables is even higher than the price of meat, forcing her to balance her daily menu.
In this context, many large vegetable suppliers are also facing difficulties due to unfavorable weather. Ms. Nguyen Kieu Oanh - Director of Mekong Delta Foods One Member Co., Ltd., Ho Chi Minh City - said that the amount of vegetables from large supply areas transported to the company's warehouse has decreased sharply in the past 2 weeks. "There are shipments that have set a purchasing schedule but by harvest time the vegetables are crushed up to half of the area. At this time, it is very difficult to supply enough goods to all supermarkets" - Ms. Oanh said.
A representative of the Thu Duc wholesale market management board, Ho Chi Minh City said that the output of vegetables imported to the market has decreased by about 90 tons per day compared to more than a month ago. Prices of most items have increased sharply, especially leafy vegetables have doubled. Hoc Mon agricultural wholesale market also confirmed that the amount of vegetables imported to the market has decreased by about 125 tons/day compared to last month. The decrease in supply has forced traders to reduce the amount of imported goods.
Market stability helps stabilize vegetable and food prices
In this situation, the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Trading Cooperatives (Saigon Co.op) urgently worked with local suppliers to adjust flexible transportation plans to maintain a source of moderate vegetables from Da Lat and contain tropical leafy vegetables such as water spinach, sweet cabbage, etc., to keep the amount of green vegetables stable and share difficulties with consumers. From November 20 to 26, Saigon Co.op will organize a Vegetable Festival with 100% of products meeting VietGAP - GlobalGAP standards, responsible green Tick and transparent traceability. Many leafy and fruit-based vegetables have decreased by 10-20% compared to the market such as cabbage, chives, bell peppers, canola, beef tomatoes, carrots... contributing to "heating up" the escalating market.
Not only acting as a distributor, from now until the end of the year, Saigon Co.op will continue to support production capital and product coverage for cooperatives and local suppliers, with the goal of stabilizing the market, ensuring a stable supply source for the system, meeting customer needs at reasonable prices, suitable for the actual situation.
Mr. Nguyen Nguyen Phuong - Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City - said that the supply of fresh food items has recently been facing difficulties due to storms and unfavorable weather conditions at the end of the year. In the coming time, the cold air in the North will continue to affect the growing areas. When output and supply decrease, prices will increase.
In the current situation, the Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City said that the Ho Chi Minh City Market Stabilization program will promote its role. Participating enterprises are large enterprises with the capacity to ensure maintaining stable prices at a relatively high level, for a certain period of time to ensure supply and demand and stabilize prices for consumers.
Ensuring supply during the Lunar New Year
In the face of the skyrocketing price of vegetables, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen - General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association - commented that this is only a temporary difficulty due to consecutive natural disasters and extreme weather. "Fruit and vegetable production will soon stabilize again after production is restored after natural disasters. In the coming time, vegetable prices will stabilize again thanks to the amount of imported vegetables as well as stabilizing production by the people", said Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen.
Speaking to Lao Dong, a representative of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) said that in October-November, the main vegetable growing areas around Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh, Hung Yen provinces and the Central Highlands provinces... were directly affected by storms and heavy rains were flooded, many vegetable areas were damaged, not allowed to be harvested, and had to be replanted; many vegetable areas were crushed, reducing quality. Due to the impact of the storm, landslides have made it difficult to harvest and transport vegetables from the production area to the market, leading to increased costs and delivery time, and reduced import of goods to wholesale markets.
"However, according to the Department's annual calculations, if there are no more unusual weather developments, the amount of vegetables and tubers will be enough to ensure the market during the Lunar New Year," said a representative of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection.
In addition, the Department has made many recommendations to people in restoring and stabilizing production after consecutive storms and floods such as cleaning the fields and removing rotten and withered trees. Pay special attention to taking good care of and protecting the remaining winter crop areas to increase productivity, output, economic efficiency and income of farmers.
