Vietnam - Cries for help resounded throughout agricultural sectors

VietNamNet Bridge – It’s now the hard time for agricultural production. Farm produce have decreased in prices, leading farmers to big losses. Ministries and branches all have called on the government to urgently pump capital to rescue agricultural production.

Farm produce prices drop, farmers drop tears

The animal husbandry has fallen into big difficulties right after some prohibited substance residues were found in the pork samples taken from some traditional markets in big cities.

The pork price has dropped dramatically from 5.1-5.3 million dong per 100 kilos earlier this year to 4 million dong, bringing big losses to farmers. Despite the price decreases, consumers still turn their back to pork for fear about diseases.

Though rice harvesting has been carried out only in some provinces of Mekong Delta, the summer-autumn rice price has plummeted continuously. IR 50404 has fallen to the deepest low since 2010, which is now collected by merchants at 3900-5000 dong per kilo (fresh or dried).

“We can earn no profit from rice fields this year. We had to work hard over the last three months, while we can earn less than 500,000 dong for every 1000 square meters of rice,” said Nguyen Van Phuc in Cai Be district of Tien Giang province.

Not only rice farmers, but ca tra (catfish) farmers in Dong Thap and An Giang provinces have also been on tenterhooks, because the price has dropped dramatically, leaving fish unsalable, which means that farmers cannot get money to pay huge debts.

According to the An Giang province Fisheries Association, the fish materials, which can meet standards for exports, now can be sold to seafood processing companies at 18,000-19,000 dong per kilo. With the prices so low, fish farmers have been sure of taking loss.

Other farm produce such as coconut and lemon have also seen the prices drop. Coconuts are now selling at 12,000 dong per 10 pieces, a sharp fall of 120,000 dong from the last year’s price. Lemon prices have dropped to 5000 dong per kilo, a decrease of 20,000 dong per kilo in comparison with one month ago.

Cries for help resounded throughout rural areas

Truong Dinh Hoe, Secretary General of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers VASEP, said the association has asked the Fisheries General Directorate and the Vietnam Development Bank to propose the government to provide fisheries companies at preferential interest rates.

If the proposal is accepted, there would be two support packages for catfish farming – cultivation and processing support packages. “Enterprises would be provided capital to maintain the fish farming. The maximum loan to be provided would be equal to 40 percent of the value of the fish at maximum,” Hoe said.

Nguyen Thanh Son, Deputy Head of the Animal Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the ministry has asked for the 9 trillion dong credit package to help the husbandry overcome the current difficulties.

Son said that the bail would be funneled to 3000 livestock farms nationwide. Farmers would be able to get new loans at the preferential interest rates of less than 10 percent per annum to resume their farming.

Son has warned that if no measure is taken to help ease the current difficulties, farmers would give up farming, which would lead to the short supply of meat for domestic consumption in the last months of the year.

MARD has also proposed the government to instruct the Vietnam Food Association to collect one million tons of rice for storage in the second half of July, in order to help refresh the market and ensure reasonable income for farmers.

Source: TBKTSG

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