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Hard times ahead for organic farmers
Rising prices for agro-materials and falling purchasing prices for vegetables are causing headaches for organic produce farmers in HCM City’s suburbs, say local farmers.
The biggest buyers of organic vegetables from suburban farming co-operatives have been the city’s supermarkets. Over the last eight months, local growers only managed to sell a kilo of spinach to supermarkets for VND3,000 (20 cents), a loss for most vegetable farmers.
Most farmers are losing VND200 per kilo due to a recent 20 per cent hike in fertiliser and seed prices that pushed production costs up to VND3,200 per kilo.
With higher production costs, organic vegetables failed to compete with their conventionally produced counterparts which are often 20 per cent cheaper. Sales of organic produce in supermarkets eventually decreased.
The city’s organic produce co-operatives produced a few thousands tonnes of vegetables, including cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, pumpkins, and onions. Their main customers are restaurants and supermarkets which consume more than half a tonne per day.
Failing to find new outlets, farmers have been forced to sell several tonnes of organic vegetables at dumping prices at small marketplaces.
Tran Van Hau, a member of a farming co-operative in Hoc Mon District, lost several million dong in his recent harvest.
Vegetable gardens
While the city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development plans to expand farming areas to 12,000ha in 2008, most farming co-operatives have reduced the area of organic farms in the face of disappearing profits.
According to Nguyen Phu Trung, chairman of the Tan Phu Trung Clean Vegetables Growing Co-operative in Cu Chi District, most of the co-operative’s members have shifted to rice cultivation or livestock breeding to avoid further losses.
With some co-operatives letting land go fallow, the output of organic produce has dropped 50 per cent to less than 10 tonnes per day.
In an effort to encourage organic farms to provide more safe and sanitary food for local consumers, city leaders spent VND650 million (US$39,000) to help farming co-operatives to implement Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) standards.
The Nhuan Duc Farming Co-operative, the first one in the city to be recognised as reaching GAP standards, opened the way for vegetable exports to Taiwan, mainland China and Singapore.
VNN
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