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Mekong River Delta: Farmers weeping over bountiful crop
The Mekong River Delta has yielded a bountiful summer-autumn crop with the high capacity of 4.5 tonnes/ha. However, the bountiful crop has not made farmers happy as the paddy price keeps decreasing and they will not have money to pay for fertiliser, pesticide for the next crop.
Paddies awaiting buyers
Tran Van Thoai, a farmer in Dai Tam commune in My Xuyen district in Soc Trang province, finished harvesting his 0.8 ha of summer-autumn paddy field, but he could not find buyers. Finally, Thoai had to sell paddies to wholesale buyers at VND3,800/kg as his fertiliser supplier was pressuring him to pay debts of VND10mil.
“At such a sale price, I will earn VND2mil only for the hard crop,” Thoai said, complaining that everything is getting more expensive – except rice.
However, Thoai seems to be luckier than Cao Tien Nghia in Can Duoc hamlet in Thanh Phu commune. Wholesale buyers just offered to purchase Nghia’s paddies at VND3,700/kg, saying that his paddies were wet. Nghia had to carry paddies to the place in front of Thanh Phu Primary School next to 1A Highway to sell.
Nghia heard on the radio that the government is asking enterprises to purchase paddies from farmers at VND5,000 at minimum, but he could not sell at this price. Finally, Nghia had to accept the VND3,750/kg price after he got tired of carrying paddies every day to 1A Highway. He needs money to pay debts and to prepare for the next crop.
The situation is the same in Bac Lieu province. Nguyen Van Hung in Tan Phong commune of Gia Rai district, who has finished harvesting 1.7 ha of paddy field for five years, still cannot sell paddies. In Hong Dan district, most paddies have been left unsold due to overly low prices.
In Ca Mau province, 20,000 ha of fields have been harvested. Paddies can be seen lying everywhere along the road from U Minh town to Khanh Hoa and Khanh Hoi communes. Farmers are drying paddies and trying to find buyers, but they cannot. It is estimated that the province will harvest 153,000 tonnes of paddy in the summer-autumn crop.
Enterprises want to buy rice, but it’s difficult
According to the Bac Lieu Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, wholesale buyers do not want to purchase paddies in large quantities now as the export price is not attractive.
The Bac Lieu People’s Committee has asked relevant branches and enterprises to purchase the paddies left among farmers.
However, Bac Lieu Materials and Food Company said that it cannot purchase paddies in large quantities as the company has five storehouses only. The company is now purchasing paddies at VND5,000/kg, but farmers cannot sell at VND5,000/kg. The problem lies in the fact that the company has to collect paddies through intermediaries.
Hau Giang province now still has 120,000 tonnes of commercial paddies, while sales have been going very slowly as wholesale buyers only offer low prices (VND4,000/kg for dried paddies).
Farmers in the Mekong Delta once chopped down pineapple and cajuput to cultivate rice fields when the paddy prices were high. Nowadays, they feel unhappy because they have a bountiful crop but sales are going very slowly.
VNN
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