Vietnam - Part 1: Growing fruit trees and chopping down

VietNamNet Bridge – The western area of the south is considered the “fruit power” with favorable natural conditions and high output. However, they are still inferior to Chinese fruits on the home market, and cannot compete with other exporters in the world market.

There are 360,000 hectares of fruit trees in Mekong Delta which is the original land of famous fruit specialties such as Hoa Loc mango, Lo Ren Vinh Kim star apple, Nam Roi pomelo and Lai Vung orange. However, local farmers lack necessary knowledge to develop their cultivation.

Tu Minh, the owner of a big orchard in Cai Be district of Tien Giang province, when asked about the 5000 square meters of land on which he grew An Phuoc plums, answered sadly that he was going to chop the down the trees.

Consumption instable

In 2008, farmers in Vinh Long, Ben Tre and Tien Giang provinces rushed to grow An Phuoc plum trees. At that time, merchants paid high at 15,000-20,000 dong per kilo of plum.

Tu Minh then decided to chop down pomelo trees to grow plum trees with all the money he had and the money he borrowed from banks. Minh believed that he would get rich with the plum orchard.

However, his plan has failed completely. “In high harvesting season, the plum price dropped dramatically to 2000 dong per kilo, while the production cost is 5000 dong already,” Minh complained, adding that it would be better to let children to pick up plums to eat than spending money to hire workers to harvest.

In fact, chopping down trees to grow other trees and then chopping down the new trees again is not a surprise at all. In 1990s, longan trees flooded the western area with the longan growing area once reaching 100,000 hectares. Therefore, many isles on Tien River were given the name “the longan isles.”

However, as everyone rushed to grow longan trees, the supply increased dramatically and the longan price dropped sharply. Ut Hien, a farmer, who grew longan on An Nhon isle, said that the longan price once plummeted to 500 dong per kilo. Therefore, local residents chopped down longan trees to grow other kinds of trees. However, the prices of the fruits have once again, plunged as the supply got profuse.

“Gardeners would be ready to grow the kinds of fruits which have high sale prices, because they believe that the early bird can catch worm,” Ut Hien said.

In fact, only a few “early birds” can make profit from selling fruits and seeds, while the new comers always taste defeat.

“Gardeners have to decide themselves what to grow and who to sell to. Therefore, they regularly chop down and then grow,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Nguyen Minh Chau, Head of the Southern Fruit Research Institute said that Vietnamese farmers have good cultivation technique and have good varieties. However, they just grow trees by feelings or simply follow other people instead of analyzing the market long term demand.

Scientists fail to persuade farmers to develop orchards in a programmed plan, because they cannot be sure the outlet for the fruits.

However, provincial authorities have shown their determination to grow intensive fruit cultivation areas which would provide fruits for export.

Tien Giang, for example, where there are 67,000 hectares of fruits, has decided to develop seven key fruits trees, including Hoa Loc mango and Lo Ren Vinh Kim star apple. Vinh Long plans to have 55,000 hectares of orchards by 2015.

However, they have been warned that boosting fruit exports would not be an easy task.

Source: Phap luat TPHCM

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