Salt, pepper prices up – dragon fruit slides

Prices of pepper and salt have risen in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak and Ho Chi Minh City, while prices of dragon fruit have dropped in the central coastal province of Binh Thuan.
The price of black pepper has soared to a record high of VND120, 000 per kilogram and the price of white pepper has hit VND200,000 per kilogram.

With these high prices, farmers have enjoyed a profit of over VND500 million per hectare, much higher than profits made from other agricultural products.

Therefore, many farmers in Buon Don, Cu M’gar, Ea H’leo and Buon Ho districts have cut down other trees to grow pepper trees.

In a pepper plantation, farmers usually grow peppers on wooden poles. There are about 1,000-1,300 wooden poles on a hectare of pepper plantation.

Last year, the average price of a pole was VND80,000, but it has increased to VND200,000 this year. Therefore, farmers have rushed to forests to cut down trees illegally to make poles.

Meanwhile, the price of dragon fruit has dropped to VND6,000-7,000 from VND17,000-18,000 per kilogram during the past ten days.

Though the price has decreased, farmers still face a lot of difficulty when selling their crops.

Dragon fruit traders have attributed the price drop to China suddenly stopping the import of the fruit.

They said if they fail to sell their fruit, which is getting ripe, they would suffer heavy losses.

Down south, Tien Thanh Salt Cooperative in Can Gio District in Ho Chi Minh City claims that salt prices have increased by VND250 to VND900-1,000 per kilogram of various kinds of salt.

While the demand for salt has been high, the district’s salt production has fallen sharply this year, to 75,000 tons from over 103,000 tons in 2010.

According to the cooperative, salt prices were too low last year and farmers had to grapple to sell their salt. Hence, salt farming areas have reduced by about 100 hectares this year to 1,500 hectares.

The decreased production is also attributed to bad weather and traditional cultivation methods. – SGGP

Tags: Vietnam Pepper, Vietnam Pepper prices