Early onion in season, main season encounters difficulties
For about 1 month now, farmers in the purple onion growing area in Vinh Chau ward, Vinh Hai commune (Can Tho city) formerly belonging to Vinh Chau town, former Soc Trang province are busy harvesting early purple onions to supply the Tet market.
Mr. Thach Dil - Director of Vinh Chau Purple Onion Cooperative (HTX) - informed that the early harvest purple onion output is estimated to reach about 50 - 60 tons, mainly F1 Maserati purple onion varieties (Netherlands). In addition, the Cooperative also links with surrounding people to produce about 50 - 60 tons more local purple onions to supplement the supply for the Tet market. The current price of purple onions ranges from 25,000 - 30,000 VND/kg. However, due to the impact of prolonged rainy season, the area of early onion this year is not large, and production has decreased compared to previous years.
Mr. Thai Van Tung - Director of Samaki Agricultural Cooperative (Vinh Hai commune, Can Tho city), said that prolonged heavy rain has slowed down the harvest schedule. Currently, people have only planted main crops for about 10-15 days, so this year the cooperative almost has no purple onions for Tet sale, having to wait after Tet to enter the peak harvest season.
According to Mr. Tung, unfavorable weather not only delays the crop but also causes early onion yields in many places to decrease sharply, in some areas only reaching 200-300kg/cong (1,000m2). Meanwhile, onion seed prices increased sharply at 100,000 - 150,000 VND/kg, at times up to 180,000 VND/kg, more than 2 times higher than the level of 50,000 - 60,000 VND/kg in previous years.
With a norm of 100–120kg of seeds/cong, the cost of buying seeds has reached 15–18 million VND/cong, making many farmers hesitant to invest. Therefore, the seedling area of the Cooperative currently only reaches about 60–70% compared to the annual plan," Mr. Tung informed.
Restructuring production, stabilizing output
Faced with cost pressure and weather risks, Samaki Agricultural Cooperative currently maintains a cultivated area of about 17ha, of which 3ha is produced in a organic direction. According to Mr. Tung, cultivation in a bio-safe direction helps farmers significantly reduce costs by replacing fertilizers and chemicals with microbial preparations, limiting the number of spraying and spraying times. In addition, products are also linked to consumption through supermarket channels at prices 5-10% higher than the market.
At Vinh Chau Purple Onion Cooperative, the unit has proactively found new directions through linking production of F1 Maserati purple onions (Netherlands). According to Mr. Thach Dil, this onion variety has the ability to grow evenly, resist pests and diseases and weather better than local purple onions.
F1 purple onion yield reaches about 30 - 35 tons/ha, 10 - 15 tons/ha higher than traditional purple onions. More importantly, the Cooperative stands out to consume output at a stable price of 15,000 - 20,000 VND/kg, helping people feel secure in production," Mr. Dil shared.
Mr. Dil said that Vinh Chau Purple Onion Cooperative also orients production towards safety, increasing the use of organic fertilizers, reducing chemicals, and promoting traceability and consumption through supermarket systems.
With soil characteristics of sandy soil, Vinh Chau purple onions have outstanding quality: tubers have beautiful colors, high crispness, a strong spicy but not harsh smell and can be preserved for a long time without using chemicals. Each year, farmers here grow 3 onion crops: early onion (harvested before Tet Nguyen Dan), administrative onion (harvested after Tet) and seed onion. In which the administrative onion crop is maintained with an area of about 5,000 ha per crop. The product has been granted a Certificate of Registration for Geographical Indication by the Intellectual Property Office and is recognized as a typical OCOP product of Soc Trang province (old).
