Farm produce price increases make farmers weep

The rice price has soared to 4500-5000 dong per kilo from 3200-3500 dong per kilo two months ago. However, farmers are not happy with the price increases, because they now have nothing to sell. The same thing is happening with farm produce as well.

Since the world’s rice price has been increasing, the Vietnam Food Association twice raised the rice floor export price by $50 per ton, thus pushing domestic prices up.

Huynh Van Duc in Bac A hamlet in Chau Thanh District in Tien Giang province is called the luckiest man in the hamlet, because he was able to sell several tons of rice at the high price of 4000 dong per kilo last week. Other farmers are not as lucky as Duc, because they sold their rice a long time ago, when prices were low, at 3200-3400 dong per kilo.

Vo Van Thanh in Diem Hy commune said he had eight tons of summer-autumn crop rice. Thanh had to sell the rice right after the harvest, because he did not have storage space to keep the rice and his fertilizer and pesticide sellers were urging him to sell rice to repay debts owed to them. According to Thanh, with the sale price at 3200 dong per kilo, he could only break even and was unable to earn a profit.

“The rice prices have been increasing so rapidly these days. If we had had adequate capital and storage, we would not have sold the rice so early. If we had rice to sell now, we would be able to make a profit,” said Tran Thi Liem, a farmer in Tan Phu commune in Tien Giang province.

The rice price usually goes down at the peak harvesting crop, and this also happened with the summer-autumn crop. In late June 2010, the price of dried rice dropped sharply to 3000-3200 dong per kilo. At that time, the Government had to ask the Vietnam Food Association to collect one million tons from farmers in order to keep prices stable and to ensure profits for farmers. Two months later, the rice price increased by 1000 dong per kilo.

The same thing has occurred with other kinds of farm produce: farmers had to sell products before, when the prices were low, and now, when the prices are high, they have nothing to sell.

Like rice, the pepper price was once very low at 37,000-38,000 dong per kilo in February and March 2010, during the peak crop. Meanwhile, the price has soared to 75,000-76,000 dong per kilo over the last few months

Tuyen, a farmer in Loc Ninh district in Binh Phuoc province, related that he harvested thirteen tons of pepper from his five hectares of pepper. As Tuyen needed money to pay debts, he had to sell pepper right after the harvest in February at 38,000 dong per kilo. However, after that, the pepper price has been climbing, now trading at 70,000 dong per kilo.

“If I had had enough capital, I would have stored products to sell later and made a fat profit,” he complained. “I lost hundreds of millions of dong from selling thirteen tons of pepper.”

An official from the Binh Phuoc Industry and Trade Department said that growing pepper plants requires a large investment, not less than 13 million dong a year for every hectare. Therefore, most pepper growers have to borrow money to invest in the pepper gardens, and they have to sell products right after the harvest to pay debts. “Some farmers even have to sell crops at cheap prices to get money to take care of their pepper gardens,” he said.

Pepper exporters also rushed to sell pepper at low prices, and now, when the price has increased twofold, they have nothing to export.

According to Tran Duc Tung, Chief Secretariat of the Vietnam Pepper Association, by the end of July 2010, Vietnam had exported over 80,000 tons of pepper, while Vietnam has only 85,000-90,000 tons in total for export.

Coffee growers in the Central Highlands also said they sold coffee in mid-year. Ironically, the prices have been increasing steadily since then, from 23,000 dong per kilo to 30,000 dong. – Tuoitre

Tags: Vietnam agriculture, Vietnam farm produce