These days, old farmer Nguyen Chat Sam (born in 1968) - a famous person growing Musang King durian on Ia Ly hydroelectric reservoir, Chu Pah district, Gia Lai province - is busy harvesting fruit.
Mr. Sam sadly said: "Every year, the Musang King durian garden of 12 hectares (1 600 trees) harvests about 50 tons. Foreign traders rush to buy the garden at around 140,000 VND/kg.
Each convoy of frozen container trucks carrying durian to the seaport. Organic durian growers like me earn in foreign currency, with out-of-pocket profits of more than 2023 billion VND/crop/year".
However, this year's durian season is very rare to see Malaysian, Korean, Chinese traders... come to durian gardens in Chu Pah to buy.
Some durian gardens are clean and organic, certified but the quantity is not enough for traders to gather goods for export.
Normally, foreign traders buy durian in the region in quantity of 100200 tons or more to compensate for the cost of seaport services, specialized ships...
According to Mr. Sam, the reason is that some localities have recently been involved in banned substances in agricultural exports. This has caused foreign traders to choose to buy in other growing areas.
The incident related to banned substances in exports has affected the whole, causing damage to many people who are passionate about sustainable clean agricultural production and business.
Currently, Musang King durian is quite rare in the market, if it cannot be exported, it can only be sold domestically to traders at lower prices. Meanwhile, the investment cost on Mr. Sam's 12 hectares of organic durian is about 1.5 billion VND/year.
Not only losing foreign currency from agricultural exports, farmers also have to work hard to send goods to traders, supermarkets, and purchasing units, with low profits, plus labor costs.
Mr. Nguyen Chat Sam shared: "The provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment needs to closely link with the people to share and guide the experience of taking care of organic gardens. In particular, starting with the use of pesticides and weather warnings, aiming for a sustainable agriculture to serve the export market".
Mr. Sam is currently the Chairman of the Chu Pah District Durian Association. All members of the association are farmers. They share and learn from each other in gardening, especially growing plants in an organic way, meeting international standards, not using chemical fertilizers, to export to foreign markets...
After the incident of some export shipments being returned by partners due to pesticide residues, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Gia Lai province advised people on the process of processing and preserving agricultural products in accordance with standards.
Clean agricultural production areas must ensure no pesticide residues, clear traceability and complete production logs to improve reliability.
Difficult markets such as: Europe, the US, Japan, Korea... have strict requirements on quality. If businesses and farmers build reputation, they will have the opportunity to sign sustainable export contracts, bringing high economic value.
