An Phuoc Man fruit prices drop sharply, gardeners are not interested in harvesting

Sharp price decrease

Once a crop that brought in a stable income, but now, An Phuoc plums are struggling to find an output with unstable prices.

With nearly 20 years of experience with plum trees, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang - Head of the Tan Loc Ward plum growing cooperative (Thot Not District, Can Tho City) - said that when plums were first developed on Tan Loc Islet, the income that this fruit brought to gardeners was quite attractive. The area and output of the region also increase gradually over the years.

However, in recent years, An Phuoc plums in particular and many other plums in the region have also encountered difficulties in output, especially this year, this fruit has fallen in price unprecedentedly.

P Art prices have decreased from 15,000 - 16,000 VND/kg (season) to 13,000 VND/kg (first crop), then decreased to 9,000 VND/kg and are currently only about 5,000 VND/kg. Meanwhile, the average production cost is from 3,000 - 5,000 VND/kg. Some gardeners have chosen not to harvest, because there is no profit and they lose money to hire workers," said Mr. Hoang.

A gardener in Thot Not district shared that this year, the complicated weather and pests have also led to increased production costs, while the price of plums has dropped, sometimes only 3,000 VND/kg. This is the reason why some gardeners let the plums ripen and not harvest them.

"The seriousness of diseases on plum trees is increasingly complicated. Although the nets have covered the plums, they are still being spotted, red-cheeded... and attacked. This has caused gardeners to treat it with pesticides and become a difficult problem for us, the gardener confided.

Concerns about food safety

According to the Can Tho Agricultural sector, although the yield is extremely high, averaging about 40 - 50 tons/ha, the value of plums is quite unstable. In recent times, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of the City has made efforts to connect with many businesses to promote plum consumption. However, because there are currently no effective measures to treat flies, the quality of plums is affected, leading to consequences for food safety.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Le Thanh Tung - Vice President of the Vietnam Gardeners Association - commented that any type of fruit will sometimes fall into a state of "going under pressure". Therefore, he recommends that localities and gardeners should maintain a moderate productivity level and focus on improving quality, ensuring better food safety.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Van Hau - former senior lecturer at Can Tho University - said that the export market share of plums is insignificant and the export potential is not large. Therefore, localities should not take the policy of expanding plum growing areas.