On the 29th day of the Lunar New Year, figs are sold in abundance in the markets. On ordinary days, this fruit is incredibly cheap, only around 10,000 VND/kg. In fact, in rural areas, people even give them away because selling them wouldn't bring in much money.
However, as Tet (Lunar New Year) approaches, figs become an expensive item because many people choose to buy them to decorate the five-fruit offering tray for Tet, hoping for a prosperous year for their family, just as the name of this fruit suggests.
Accordingly, figs at the Tet market are sold in bunches rather than by weight like other fruits. A bunch of figs costs between 50,000 and 70,000 VND, equivalent to 200,000-250,000 VND per kilogram. This price is 20-25 times higher than the regular price.
"Even so, figs are still very popular for Tet offerings," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Quy, a fruit vendor at Dai Tu Market (Hoang Mai, Hanoi ). Her shop starts selling clusters of figs for Tet offerings from the 25th day of the 12th lunar month.
According to Ms. Quy, besides bananas and pomelos, families often choose fruits like coconuts, melons, figs, and papayas in their five-fruit offering because their names symbolize abundance and prosperity. She is selling figs for 60,000 VND per bunch, weighing nearly 300 grams and complete with leaves.
“Yesterday and this morning, almost every customer who came to the shop to buy fruit for the five-fruit offering chose figs. So, yesterday alone I sold 400 bunches. This morning, all three boxes of fig bunches were sold out; there are only two boxes left before they're all gone,” she shared. Including the Tet season, the estimated amount of figs sold is about 1,500 bunches.
"We start collecting fig orders from mid-December and fulfill customer orders from the 27th to the 29th of the Lunar New Year," said Ms. Tran Thi Hao, a fruit vendor in Trung Hoa (Cau Giay, Hanoi). She added that most customers buy 2-3 bunches, while some only order 1 bunch. The number of fig bunches ordered in bulk (5-20 bunches) is not large.
However, after nearly half a month of collecting orders, the number of figs customers placed reached almost 1,000 bunches.
“I choose figs that are whole, ungrafted, and not tied with rubber bands. A bunch of figs with leaves intact sells for 70,000 VND, weighing between 200 and 300 grams each,” she said. Currently, Ms. Hao has finished sorting the last orders for delivery to customers today. Now she is preparing to clean up her shop for the Tet holiday.
Speaking to PV.VietNamNet , Mr. Nguyen Van Bao – a wholesaler of figs in Can Tho – said that figs are usually inexpensive. They are mainly bought to be pickled quickly and used as a side dish with hot snails.
During Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year), figs become a highly sought-after item, fetching exorbitant prices due to their name, which symbolizes prosperity. Mr. Bao has been wholesaling bunches of figs for 6-7 years. Previously, bunches of figs used for Tet offerings were only popular in the southern provinces. But since Tet 2023, there have been many wholesale customers from the North, especially in Hanoi.
"Some wholesale customers only take 1-2 boxes, but others take 5-10 boxes," he said. From the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month until now, the amount of figs sold wholesale to customers in the northern provinces has increased sharply. Especially in the days leading up to Tet, the amount of figs he ships to wholesale customers reaches 3,000-4,000 bunches per day.
Today, Mr. Bao has stopped wholesaling to customers in the North, only selling to a few distributors in the South. This is because the shipping time is only sufficient for wholesale customers in the South to receive their goods in time for sales on the morning of the 30th of Tet (Lunar New Year's Eve).
Source
![[Photo] Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh holds a phone call with the CEO of Russia's Rosatom Corporation.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvphoto.vietnam.vn%2Fthumb%2F1200x675%2Fvietnam%2Fresource%2FIMAGE%2F2025%2F12%2F11%2F1765464552365_dsc-5295-jpg.webp&w=3840&q=75)
Comment (0)