'Strange story' in the largest longan growing capital in the North

Song Ma district ( Son La province) has more than 7,700 hectares of longan, the largest longan capital in the North, but due to crop failure, many establishments processing dried longan for export do not have raw materials for production and have to import Thai longan.

Garden owner chooses trader

This year's longan harvest and consumption season in Song Ma district has had many "strange things". Longan prices have been high since the beginning of the season and have not "collapsed" as quickly as in previous years. The low longan output has made it more difficult for traders to collect goods while garden owners "take their time" to harvest and wait for prices to rise.

Song Ma longan ( Son La province), the capital of longan growing in the North, is easy to sell this year and has a high price. HA MINH

Mr. Luong Van Muoi, owner of a longan garden in Huoi Bo village (Chieng Khoong commune), said that this year's weather was harsh from the time the longan trees flowered until harvest day. Specifically, when the longan trees were in full bloom, the weather was unfavorable, so the fruit set rate was very low. Then, the long hot weather, many gardens suffered from drought, and there was no water for irrigation, causing many longan gardens to continue to lose fruit. "This year's longan yield in Chieng Khoong commune was only 30% compared to last year, but in return, the selling price of longan from the beginning of the season was the highest in many recent years and the price was very stable, not decreasing as rapidly as every year," said Mr. Muoi. While many households were sad, relying on longan trees for their income all year but had a bad harvest, Mr. Luong Van Muoi's family won big. Out of 600 longan trees, only 3 had "poor fruit", the total harvest yield was about 13 tons, not inferior to the 2023 crop and sold at a high price. According to Mr. Luong Van Muoi, his family's longan garden is lucky to have a high fruit set rate, because he has proactively invested in a water pump system to irrigate each longan tree, so it is almost undamaged by hot weather and drought. "The selling price of longan right at the garden is from 35,000 - 45,000 VND/kg. After deducting production costs and hiring workers, there is still a profit of hundreds of millions of VND," Mr. Muoi revealed. For many years working as a trader purchasing agricultural products in Muong La district, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha said that Muong La longan has thick, sweet and juicy flesh, and is very popular with customers when brought to the Hanoi market. When the harvest season comes, Ms. Ha buys longan directly from gardeners in Song Ma district, packs it in boxes and then ships it to Long Bien wholesale market and Van Quan wholesale market (Hanoi). All the longan brought in is sold out, but this year, to collect as many goods as in 2023 is also a challenge for traders. "In previous years, there were many longans, so I could freely choose a garden, even buy the whole garden, but this year, on the contrary, the garden owners chose traders to sell their goods. They were not interested in selling the whole garden like last year, but picked and sold them gradually day by day. Sometimes, the longans were picked and brought home, but if the traders came to offer a low price, the garden owners would call and sell them to another customer right away. We traders still joke that there has never been a year when buying longans was as tiring as this year, sometimes we had to endure and flatter the garden owners to buy enough goods to deliver to customers," said Ms. Ha. According to Ms. Ha, due to the sharp decrease in supply, the price of longans this year was very high, stable from the beginning of the season to the middle of the season, and there was no "price collapse" according to the annual market rule when the middle of the harvest season, the selling price decreased. "In the 2023 crop, the highest price of longan at the beginning of the season for good products bought by the ton at the garden was 48,000 VND/kg, then the price gradually decreased, at times only 15,000 VND/kg. This year, the price at the beginning of the season was 50,000 VND/kg, then decreased but remained stable at 47,000 - 48,000 VND/kg. Right now, the price of grade 1 longan is from 40,000 - 46,000 VND, grade 2 is from 30,000 - 35,000 VND. Even the type of longan put into the spiral, the price is also higher than in 2023", Ms. Ha reflected.

Due to a sharp decrease in supply, the price of Song Ma longan (Son La province) this year is very high, stable from the beginning of the season to the middle of the season. NGUYEN THU

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According to Thanh Nien 's research, the longan market in Song Ma district is divided into two product lines. Of which, the "flower and gift" longan with quality from grade 1 to 3 always has a high selling price, is purchased by traders and businesses for export or brought to supermarkets, and consumed in provinces and cities across the country. The second product line is longan with spiral longan, which is put into drying ovens to process dried longan. Longan with spiral longan is the general name for longan with bad appearance, dark, black skin, uneven fruit size; longan fruit falls off, cracks, or breaks during harvesting and transportation... and cannot be sold fresh. In previous years, the selling price of longan with spiral longan was around 10,000 VND/kg, the lowest point was only 5,000 - 7,000 VND/kg. But this year, the deeper the harvest season, the more expensive the longan is. At the beginning of the season in early June, the price of longan was only 12,000 VND/kg, but now it has increased to 14,000 - 16,000 VND/kg without enough goods to put into the drying kilns. Mr. Tran Van Tuan, Deputy Director of Hoang Hai Cooperative (Chieng Khoong Commune, Song Ma District, Son La Province), said that this unit has contracts to export longan to partners from Korea, China, and Japan. Currently, the cooperative's longan processing facility needs 60,000 tons of raw materials every day. Previously, this source of raw materials was mainly purchased in Song Ma District and Hung Yen Province, from October to December, it had to import Thai longan to meet the order. But this year, from the beginning of July, Hoang Hai Cooperative had to buy Thai longan for processing at a price of 16,500 VND/kg.

"According to the contract to export dried longan to partners this year, we have to import Thai longan 3 months in advance with a total output of up to 20,000 tons," Mr. Tuan shared.

Speaking with Thanh Nien , Mr. Nguyen Tien Hai, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Song Ma District, informed that the whole district has nearly 3,000 longan drying kilns, due to the lack of local raw materials, many facilities have to operate at a low level. In particular, many longan exporting units are having to buy Thai longan for processing. According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Hai, Song Ma District has 7,700 hectares of longan, of which more than 6,000 hectares are being harvested, surpassing Hung Yen to become the largest concentrated longan growing capital in the North. In the 2023 crop, the total longan output of Song Ma district reached 75,000 tons, but this year due to unfavorable weather, the longan crop was severely damaged, the total output by harvest was only 30% compared to 2023. "Due to low output, this year's Song Ma longan is only consumed in the domestic market, there are not many exports. Currently, gardeners are harvesting early ripe longan, and the main season longan will start from mid-August. Any garden with longan has had a few traders asking to buy it and there has never been a year when the drying kilns in Song Ma have brought in as many containers of Thai longan as this year to replace the source of raw materials for processing", said Mr. Hai. Source: https://thanhnien.vn/chuyen-la-o-thu-phu-trong-nhan-lon-nhat-mien-bac-185240721180824613.htm