Be careful with fruit shapes.
At this time, farmers and gardeners in the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta are busy producing fruits and vegetables to serve the 2025 Lunar New Year market.
Preparing about 150 shaped grapefruits to supply the Tet market, Mr. Nguyen Van Nam (Phong Dien district, Can Tho city) said that compared to last year, the quantity has decreased by nearly half. The reason given by the gardeners is that it takes a lot of care, the investment cost is high while the demand of consumers in recent years has tended to decrease.
“Although gourd-shaped and gold-bar shaped grapefruits are beautiful, their high prices make it difficult to sell. This year, I have been growing grapefruits in the traditional way, which requires less investment and lower prices,” said Mr. Nam.
Planting 5,000 m2 of watermelons to supply the Tet market, Mr. Tran Cong Nam (Vi Thuy district, Hau Giang province) said that most of them are red watermelons and yellow watermelons. The shaped watermelons are only left for about 100 fruits according to orders. This farmer shared that to have shaped watermelons is not easy, in addition to investing in molds, due to the impact of weather, the loss rate is also quite high.
Accordingly, if there are no traders who pre-order, with expensive production costs and elaborate processes, Mr. Nam plans not to make shaped watermelons this year to reduce risks and ensure profits.
Clean vegetables are popular
Along with traditional production, this year, Ms. Nguyen Nhu Thuy (Co Do district, Can Tho city) started growing hydroponic vegetables to serve the Tet market. According to Ms. Thuy, although the production cost is slightly higher, the plants have fewer pests and diseases, do not need to use pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and especially have a source of clean vegetables to meet the needs of consumers.
“In recent years, consumers have increasingly preferred clean food to protect their family’s health. This year, I will experiment with planting 100 square meters. If consumption and selling prices are good, I will expand the production scale,” Ms. Thuy shared.
Also growing hydroponic vegetables in a greenhouse to serve the Tet market, Mr. Huu Tai (Chau Thanh district, Hau Giang province) said that this method helps farmers easily control the quality of vegetables and tubers, reduce risks caused by weather as well as have clean, safe products to supply to the market.
Although the price of clean vegetables is higher than that of regular agricultural products, in recent years, the consumption situation at Mr. Tai's vegetable garden has been quite good due to the increasing trend of protecting consumers' health.
According to the Can Tho City Agricultural Service Center (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Can Tho City), in hydroponics, the water environment is provided with nutrients equivalent to those in the soil, creating a completely balanced nutrient solution, creating the opportunity to provide optimal conditions for plant growth. This method can also control diseases in the soil, insects and pests on plants. However, during operation, growers need to pay attention to some necessary factors directly related to the growth and development of vegetables such as PH index, EC index (electrical conductivity), light, humidity, precipitated nutrients, etc.
