These days, in Long My district (Hau Giang province), farmers are harvesting the Winter-Spring rice crop - the rice crop considered the most important of the year. However, in contrast to the usual bustling atmosphere, the faces of each farmer household clearly show sadness and anxiety when productivity drops sharply, rice prices plummet, causing profits to seriously decrease.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hiep in Luong Tam commune shared that this season, her family cultivated 1.2 hectares of OM 5451 rice, with a yield of only about 8 tons/ha, down more than 2 tons over the same period. Rice prices also decreased to only 6,000 VND/kg.
"This price is due to my deposit in advance, but currently there are only 5,700 - 5,800 VND/kg. Working rice for 3 months without problems but the profit is only over 1 million VND/1,000 m2, which is too low. After this crop, due to the impact of saline intrusion, we had to leave the land vacant for several months, with our previous income not enough to cover our living expenses, let alone reinvest in the next rice crop," Ms. Hiep lamented.
Ms. Hiep added that unfavorable weather and unseasonal rains at the end of 2024 have created conditions for pests and diseases to develop, leading to poor winter-spring rice crops.
Mr. Vo Thanh Phan (Luong Tam commune) said: "With the selling price at 5,700 VND/kg, down 2,500 - 2,600 VND/kg compared to the same period, taking into account the selling price alone, each rice crop (1,000m2) costs farmers about 2 million VND. If we add the reduction in rice productivity of 200kg/cong, it is estimated that farmers will lose more than 3 million VND/cong in income. This is truly a large amount of money for rice growers".
A similar situation is also happening in Soc Trang province. Ms. Nhat Hoa in Long Duc commune (Long Phu district) said that her family has just harvested 20 hectares of Dai Thom 8 rice, with an estimated yield of only 6.5 - 7 tons/ha, down about 2 tons/ha compared to the same period.
"The production cost is over 90 million VND (all stages are hired for labor). However, the yield was not as expected and the rice prices fell, so the low profit was even lower. In the 2023 - 2024 Winter-Spring crop, I earned (excluding expenses) 220 million VND, while this crop, I sold all my rice for just over 100 million VND," Ms. Hoa sadly said.
Mr. Thanh Xuan - a farmer in Tai Van commune (Tran De district, Soc Trang province) said that his family has just harvested 6 hectares of Dai Thom 8 rice, with a yield of 6 tons/ha. Traders buy at the fields at 7,000 VND/kg. " after deducting costs, I made a profit of about 15 million VND/ha, down more than half compared to last year's Winter-Spring crop and this is the lowest profit in about 3 years," said Mr. Xuan.
According to records, rice prices in the Mekong Delta have decreased since before the Lunar New Year 2025, after the Lunar New Year, there was a slight increase, then continued to decrease sharply until now. Updated from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of An Giang province, currently the price of OM 5451 (fresh) rice is 6,000 VND/kg; OM 18 and Dai Thom 8 rice (fresh) fluctuates at 6,400 - 6,600 VND/kg; IR 50404 rice (fresh) fluctuates at 5,400 - 5,600 VND/kg, etc.
Recordings in many localities show that rice trading is taking place slowly. In Kien Giang, farmers have offered prices but new rice transactions have slowed down, there are few transactions, many traders are buying at a low rate. Similar situations also occurred in Hau Giang, Can Tho, Soc Trang, Dong Thap and An Giang.
