On November 24, at Ba Chieu market, Ms. Nguyen Thuy Duyen (living in Binh Thanh ward) said that for nearly a week now, she has had to reduce the amount of vegetables she buys each day because the price has increased too much.
Green pepper is priced at VND90,000-110,000/kg, and lettuce is priced at VND120,000/kg in some places. Going to the market, I was startled because the next day I increased by a few thousand. My family now switches to eating vegetables and fruits to save money and save money" - Ms. Duyen shared.
At many other traditional markets such as Tan Dinh, Go Vap, Thu Duc... green vegetable prices have not cooled down. Some traders said this is the highest price since the beginning of the year.
Ms. Le Thanh - a trader at Tan Dinh market, said: "In the past few days, there have been very few vehicles with goods from Da Lat and the Central region. I have to turn around to find more sources from Ho Chi Minh City and the Western provinces to have more affordable prices for customers".
Thu Duc wholesale market receives about 1,400-1,600 tons of vegetables per day. However, since November 20, due to landslides on many passes from Lam Dong to Ho Chi Minh City, major floods in the Central region have caused traffic disruption, and the amount of goods to the market has decreased by nearly 100 tons/day and night. Prolonged floods have disrupted supply, while stable demand has pushed prices higher.
Another factor is that this time, vegetables from China are also imported very little because many containers are stuck in the Central provinces due to the storm, causing the gap between supply and demand to increase and prices of goods continue to increase sharply.
Mr. Quoc Cuong, a long-time trader at the market, informed: "During prolonged heavy rain, many vegetable fields of gardeners were flooded, with damaged leaves and had to be abandoned. The cargo vehicles arrived slowly, even at night, only half as good as usual. The quantity is small, so the price is pushed up".
Other wholesale markets also recorded vegetable prices increasing, the strongest increase was green onions to 80,000-100,000 VND/kg, black chili 90,000-100,000 VND/kg...
Mr. Ngo Hong Y - Deputy Head of the Trade Management Department, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade said that the main agricultural product supply of Ho Chi Minh City comes from Lam Dong province (Da Lat, Don Duong, Duc Trong areas) and the Mekong Delta provinces.
However, many large productive regions in these two regions are being affected by prolonged heavy rain, landslides and flooding, causing the supply to Ho Chi Minh City to decrease by 10-20%. This has led to a sharp increase in retail prices of items such as leafy vegetables, lettuce, mustard, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.
A representative of the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City said that the risk of local vegetable shortages in the coming time is possible. To proactively respond and maintain market stability, the Department has been working with distribution systems and stable enterprises to seek alternative, reputable and long-term supply sources.
