Mekong Delta - Worry about agricultural products stagnation and price drop

Farmers in the delta are worried that agricultural products will experience price drop and stagnation when wholesale markets in Ho Chi Minh City are closed and localities have initiated social distancing.

Farmers in Tien Giang and Long An are in the dragon fruit harvest season. Photo: Le Hoang Vu.

Fruits in the ripening season

The Covid-19 epidemic situation has greatly affected the fruit consumption of businesses and farmers in many places as well as in the Cuu Long Delta.

As said by Ms. Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh, owner of Kieu Linh fruit barn (An Thai Trung commune, Cai Be district, Tien Giang province): There are several checkpoints from here to Ho Chi Minh City, which increases the time a lot, causing deliveries to be late. The delivery is so difficult that the amount of goods shipped is greatly reduced.

Moreover, the cost for traders purchasing at the garden must also increase because they also have to do testing through the checkpoint. Fruits in the garden are backlogged and so ripen that they can not be picked up in time, resulting in farmers suffer losses.

From July to September is the time when some fruits in the Cuu Long Delta are in full ripening season. An Giang province will have a bountiful mango harvest at the end of the year, from October to December 2021, with an output of about 84,000 tons. If the epidemic continues complicatedly, it is likely that the next batch of mangoes will be difficult to consume. The reason is that 80% of mangoes in An Giang are exported to the Chinese market.

According to many longan growers in Dong Thap, longan has been a very stable selling fruit in the domestic and export markets. But from the beginning of 2021 until now, due to the impact of Covid-19, longan prices have decreased and consumption has been difficult. Especially, Binh Dien wholesale market in Ho Chi Minh City has been a huge consumer of Chau Thanh's longan, but due to closure, the consumption of longan here is much slower now.

Rushing to harvest shrimps early

As noted by the Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper in Dong Hai district (Bac Lieu), after the locality had a case of Covid-19 infection, the people have rushed to harvest shrimp earlier than planned as they were afraid that there would be no buyers during the distancing.

Mr. Le Van Thong (Dien Hai commune, Dong Hai district, Bac Lieu province) shared: Due to Covid-19’s complicated development, when the shrimps in the pond were still 60 days old, reaching 85 shrimps/kg, he decided to harvest, traders bought at VND 92,000/kg. After selling, he felt regret because if he had raised it for another month, he could reach 25 -30 shrimp/kg because shrimps grow fast around this time.

This year's shrimp crop, the family of Mr. Ngo Quoc Thai, Buu Dong hamlet, Long Dien Dong commune, Dong Hai district, Bac Lieu, stocked two ponds according to a two-stage high-tech model. Shrimp farming for 85 days reached 25-30 shrimp/kg, growing very well. However, for fear of Covid-19 making traders reluctant to move to trade, he soon contacted the seller. On the first day, 25-30 shrimp/kg sold for VND 128,000/kg, but on the second day, the trader only paid VND 122,000/kg. "After just one day, I lost VND 6 million/ton," Mr. Thai lamented.

Request the MARD to introduce enterprises purchasing rice

The Cuu Long Delta provinces are harvesting summer-autumn rice in 2021. However, due to Covid-19, the number of businesses coming to buy rice has decreased compared to the same period and is likely to be stagnant from late July to mid-August 2021.

An Giang has requested the MARD to support and introduce more food businesses to An Giang to connect and immediately consume summer-autumn rice when it is almost time for the concentrated harvest at the end of July 2021, and at the same time support An Giang in finding connection for mango consumption in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Agricultural materials are overpriced

Due to the impact of the transportation of goods during the Covid-19 season, the agricultural materials industry is experiencing a “hot increase” in prices. Accordingly, in the Cuu Long Delta, pesticide prices have increased by about 15%, the prices of fertilizer and animal feed of all kinds have increased by 50% or even more.

Farmers are facing difficulties from both input and output aspects. They are worried when sowing seeds for the autumn-winter rice crop and fertilizers are not provided in time for the production stages. Businesses said that the transportation stage is also having a very hard time.