In recent times, passion fruit prices dropped sharply. This has caused many farmers in Gia Lai province to be confused, even not wanting to harvest anymore, just leaving the fruit fall in the garden.
FARMERS DO NOT WANT TO HARVEST
In recent days, the prices of passion fruit in Gia Lai province have continuously decreased, causing many households to worry. In localities with large areas of passion fruit such as Chu Pah, Ia Grai, Dak Doa, etc, traders come to buy passion fruit for only about 2,500 – 3,000 VND/kg. Meanwhile, passion fruit in the market is sold for about 5,000 VND/kg. A few months ago, the price fluctuated over 10,000 VND/kg.
The falling prices of passion fruit make many farmers in Gia Lai not want to harvest.
The falling price of passion fruit has caused many farmers to worry about a loss. Many farmers are going to switch to other crops.
In Chu Pah district, prolonged heavy rains in recent days have made caused a gloomy atmosphere for all passion fruit growers. Mr. Tran Van Thanh (Village 3, La Nhin commune) is picking up fallen passion fruit to put in a sack. The falling price of passion fruit makes Mr. Thanh more worried.
He said that last year when the price of passion fruit increased, people in Chu Pah district massively grew passion fruit. Seeing that, he decided to grow passion fruit in an area of 1.5 ha. The total investment for the passion fruit garden was more than 200 million VND. His family expected to harvest after 05 months with a profit three times higher than the investment.
The prices of passion fruit dropped so many farmers suffered losses.
However, when entering the harvest, the price of passion fruit decreased to only 8,000 VND/kg, then continued to 5,000 VND/kg. Currently, traders come to buy for only 3,000 VND/kg.
“Ripe passion fruit must be sold, otherwise they will fall full of the garden. Not to mention the prolonged rain in the past few days, making the quality of passion fruit worse, so farmers have to sell them despite of the low price. At this price, my family has to suffer a loss this season, ” Mr. Thanh said sadly.
In Dak Doa district, passion fruit is planted in an area of more than 600 ha. Today, along the roads from Ha Bau commune to Nam Yang commune, Dak Krong (Dak Doa district), many passion fruit gardens are being harvested. However, due to the low price of passion fruit, many farmers try to prolong the harvest time to wait for a “miracle”. Others who did not have the patience decided to sell at low prices and switch to other crops.
Trying to destroy the family’s passion fruit garden, Mr. Tran Van Hai (Hamlet 76, Ha Bau commune) said that: The family’s passion fruit garden has been planted for more than one year. Previously, they harvested a few times with the price of over 10,000 VND/kg. But after that, the price went down more and more. Recently, traders came to buy at only VND 2,5000/kg.
Many farmers decided to switch to other crops.
“The passion fruit garden is old, the quality of the fruit is not good, and the price is too low. Therefore, my family decided to switch to other crops. Previously, my family had bought passion fruit varieties for the next crop. But due to the low price, we are afraid of losses so we canceled the plan”, Mr. Hai shared.
Gia Lai province currently has more than 5,000 ha of passion fruit with about 20 packaging facilities and 19 planting granted codes. It is worth mentioning that in the province, there are many large passion fruit processing factories in operation and the area of this plant has not exceeded the recommendations of the agricultural industry, but the prices still go down
IT IS RECOMMENDED NOT TO MASSIVELY EXPAND THE AREA
Mr. Le Van Thanh, Director of Ia Mo Nong Agricultural Tourism Service and Production Cooperative (Chu Pah district), said that when people saw the high price of passion fruit, they massively expanded the area, leading to supply excess demand.
“The area of passion fruit is only a few thousand ha now, but the price has fallen so low. If we increase the area to 25,000 ha as in the provincial project, what will happen with growers?”, Mr. Thanh said and advised people not to massively expand the area of passion fruit.
Harvesting passion fruit but farmers are not happy.
Similarly, Mr. Nguyen The Minh, Director of Nghia Hoa Agricultural Service Cooperative (Chu Pah district), said that the cooperative is buying passion fruit for farmers at the best price. However, recently, the low price of passion fruit has made many people not interested in caring for the garden, leading to poor quality. And if the passion fruit reaches standard quality, the cooperative is willing to buy at 5,000 – 6,000 VND/kg.
Regarding the cause of the sharp drop in the price of passion fruit, Mr. Minh said that: When people saw the price of passion fruit increase, they planted it massively. Meanwhile, the development plan for the factories and farmers was not suitable. For example, if the factory has a capacity of 500,000 tons, how many growers and how much area is enough? Currently, farmers massively plant passion fruit, causing excess supply. This is out of the plan of factories, leading to low prices.
Gia Lai province currently has more than 5,000 ha of passion fruit.
According to Mr. Minh, to stabilize the passion fruit market, it is necessary to have the help of the government to build specific strategic plans. Otherwise, people massively plant and then destroy.
Mr. Nguyen Kim Anh, Head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Dak Doa district, said that the price of passion fruit dropped as low as 3,000 VND/kg. That means farmers get no profit.
“At the current low price, we propagate to people that they should take care of the garden instead of destroying it if it ensures suitable soil and climate. As for old passion fruit gardens with poor productivity or diseases, they should switch to seasonal crops to improve the soil “, Mr. Kim Anh shared.
Mr. Kim Anh added that the locality could not decide on the market, so people should limit investment, at the same time, follow organic farming to ensure stable development of the garden, reduce costs, and improve productivity./.