Low price longan, reduce revenue

In Noong Het commune, longan garden owners have to bring their longan to the longan processing plant to sell.

Pom Lot is a commune with a tradition of longan processing in Dien Bien district. There are seasons when the commune has 10-12 households processing longan, creating jobs for hundreds of seasonal workers . Each longan season, the whole commune processes about a few dozen tons of longan. However, this year, the atmosphere of making longan at the longan kilns in the commune is much quieter. It is the main longan season, but the whole commune only has 5 longan kilns operating and they are not operating at full capacity. Some households even burn the longan kilns for only 7-10 days before turning off the fire and burying the coal.

Mr. Vu Van Minh, team 9 , Pom Lot commune has been processing longan since 1998. With 25 years of experience , Mr. Minh now owns 3 longan processing kilns with a capacity of 3 tons/season. Although it is only seasonal, longan processing has helped Mr. Minh's family increase their income, improve their lives and create jobs for dozens of people in team 9. This year's longan season, Mr. Minh continues his annual work , but fires the kilns later and only fires 2 out of 3 kilns.

Mr. Vu Van Minh said: The longan processing profession is increasingly difficult. In recent years, the profession has always been at a loss because the price of longan has fallen while input costs have increased. In 2022, when the longan gardens were just blooming, I went to find and buy the whole garden to create a raw material area for the longan kilns to operate. When the longan was ripe, the weather was unfavorable, with prolonged heavy rains causing a lot of longan fruit to fall. There was a longan garden that was bought for 8 million VND and only harvested about 40%; even a longan garden that was bought for 6 million VND at the beginning of the season was lost . Meanwhile , the price of coal, the price of hiring people to break longan, and the price of finished longan products has decreased, not enough to cover the investment costs. Therefore, this year's longan crop, I lit the kiln 10 days later than previous crops; I also did not buy garden longan but switched to buying longan by weight and only lit 2 longan kilns.

Mr. Vu Van Minh, team 9, Pom Lot commune checks longan before putting it into the drying oven.

Longan products are mainly sold to the Chinese market. When the Chinese market is limited, the product price often drops very quickly. At the beginning of this year's longan season, the price of longan imported by traders was about 135,000 - 140,000 VND/kg. However, in the main season, the price dropped to 110,000 VND/kg. According to calculations, the investment cost to have 1kg of longan is about 80,000 VND (not including the labor of the longan kiln owner), including: 30,000 VND for fresh longan; 30,000 VND for longan rolling, 20,000 VND for coal to burn the kiln. The profit is low compared to the cost. Therefore, some longan kilns only produce in the first 15 days of the season instead of 1 month like previous years.

Mr. Le Van Tinh, owner of a longan kiln in Team 1, Pom Lot Commune, said: This year, fresh longan is in season and the price is cheap, but if any longan kiln is greedy to buy the whole garden , the possibility of loss is very high. Because whether the longan product can be sold or not depends entirely on the Chinese market. Currently, the market is stagnant, the price of longan has dropped sharply while the price of coal is very high. This year, almost all kiln owners are working and waiting, not daring to risk investing much. As for my family, in previous years, we used 3 longan kilns at full capacity, but this year I only used 2 kilns, producing more moderately than in previous years. The expected output of longan in 2023 is about 2 tons.

The low price of longan and the unstable market have caused the longan processing industry in Pom Lot commune to reduce its scale and output. Discussing this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Luyen, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Pom Lot commune, said: The longan processing industry has been formed and developed in Pom Lot commune for many years. 5-7 years ago, the longan kilns were very active, the products were easy to sell, contributing to increasing the income of households. However, in the past 3 years, the number of households participating in longan production has shown signs of decreasing. The reason is that the area of longan gardens in the commune has been narrowed; traders buy less, the price of longan is low. In addition, in recent years, Son La province has strongly developed the area of longan gardens, invested in factories, and modern technological lines, so longan products have higher quality and competitiveness than products in Dien Bien.

People of Team 1, Pom Lot commune, spin longan to earn extra income at longan production kilns in the area.

Similar to Pom Lot commune, longan kilns in Noong Het commune are also operating at a low level. According to preliminary statistics, this year the whole commune has less than 10 longan kilns in operation, the lowest in many years .

We visited the longan production kiln of Mr. Ha Duy Tinh, Tan Lap village, Noong Het commune. Mr. Tinh was packing longan while sharing: “ This year’s longan season is really difficult. Besides low prices and high investment costs , my facility has encountered many difficulties in hiring workers to spin longan. The students have all gone to school and work; the people are not very interested, leading to a shortage of workers. Therefore, this year, I only burned 2 out of 4 longan kilns . ”

Longan kilns are producing at a moderate rate, which has significantly affected the income of longan garden owners in Dien Bien district. Ms. Ca Thi Duyen, Bong village, Noong Het commune, said: My family has 20 longan trees for harvest. In previous years, when the longan garden just started to bloom, many people came to buy the whole garden or buy by the tree. However, this year, the longan crop was good but no one came to buy. Therefore, my family had to harvest and sell at the market or transport it to the longan kiln to sell. The estimated yield of the longan garden is about 800 kg of fruit, about 60% of which has been harvested. The longan crop was good but the price was very cheap, selling at the kiln for only 3,000 VND/kg ; the income from the longan garden this year decreased compared to previous years.

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