Areca nut prices in the Central region stagnate as Chinese traders remain cautious.

Son Tay and Nghia Hanh districts are the largest areca growing areas in Quang Ngai province with about 2,200 hectares. In the past few months, areca prices have been increasing continuously. At the beginning of the season, areca prices were about 50-60 thousand VND/kg. At the peak, areca prices were over 90 thousand VND/kg. Thanks to that, areca growing families have high incomes, some households earn billions of VND.

The areca clusters are heavy with fruit but always precarious.

People weigh areca nuts to sell to traders

People transport areca nuts to sell to traders during peak days.

Heavy bunches of areca nuts have high prices at the beginning of the season.

However, in recent days, areca nut consumption has begun to “slow down”. Areca nut prices have also gradually decreased and traders are also cautious, not daring to buy for fear of not being able to sell.

Mr. Truong Van Phuong, who specializes in buying areca nuts, said that areca nuts are only sold to export agents to China. Currently, the price of areca nuts is only about 50-60 thousand VND/kg. But the worrying thing is that the agents are not buying as much as before.

Mr. Truong Van Phuong said: “The price of areca nuts has been lower than before for the past 3 days and we don’t know if they will buy them again or not. It’s only been 4 days, but before, they were still able to buy them. There are a few retail stores along the road that buy for the kilns, but people are not buying anymore. Only the kilns themselves, with their capital, buy for their regular customers, they only buy for their customers, they don’t buy from strangers.”

Processing of areca nuts after drying

Areca plantations of Quang Ngai people

Endless areca plantations

Currently the purchasing speed is slow so traders have temporarily stopped buying areca nuts.

Areca nuts are picked, processed and dried.

According to Mr. Dam Bang, Vice Chairman of Nghia Hanh District People's Committee, areca nut is not a key crop and the locality does not encourage people to grow areca nut.

The market for areca nuts is very unstable, depending on Chinese traders. Every year when areca nuts are priced well, people plant them en masse, but after a few crops they can’t sell them, so they cut them down. Mr. Dam Bang added:

“Areca palms in Nghia Hanh district have unstable output. People only buy them through Chinese traders. They get a good price when they buy them, but if they don’t buy them, people will cut them down. Therefore, the district does not encourage planting trees and in the process of restructuring the agricultural sector, they do not include areca palms in the planning to plant areca palms, because the output of areca palms is unstable.”

Source: https://vov.vn/kinh-te/gia-cau-o-mien-trung-chung-lai-do-thuong-lai-trung-quoc-de-chung-post1129630.vov