In recent days, the Central Highlands region has entered the main sweet potato harvest season. However, sweet potato farmers are sitting on hot coals, because the selling price has continuously plummeted, from 10,000 VND/kg at the beginning of the season to 3,500 VND/kg as at present. This price level puts sweet potato growers at risk of heavy losses.
Faced with this situation, the People's Committee of Phu Thien district ( Gia Lai ) has reported to the People's Committee of Gia Lai province, requesting businesses to connect and consume agricultural products for farmers growing Japanese sweet potatoes. Specifically, at present, the price of sweet potatoes has dropped to a very low level, only 3,500 VND/kg (10,000 VND/kg at the beginning of the season). Meanwhile, in Phu Thien district, there are more than 1,600 hectares entering harvest, with an output of more than 32,000 tons.
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| Sweet potato prices have been continuously falling, partly due to farmers' spontaneous production and uncontrolled increase in planting area. |
According to statistics for the 2023-2024 Winter-Spring crop, Phu Thien district planted about 3,440 hectares of sweet potatoes. Most of the area is planted by people in communes such as Chu A Thai, Ia Sol, Ia Piar... in rotation between two crops of rice and Japanese sweet potatoes. The average yield is 20 tons/ha, with an output of about 68,800 tons. To date, 2,064 hectares have been harvested and the harvest season for the remaining area is at its peak, expected to last until the end of April 2024.
However, the price of sweet potatoes has dropped sharply, only about 3,500 VND/kg, but traders are buying sparingly and tending to reduce the quantity. The price has dropped sharply, the output is difficult, while the remaining area is about to be harvested very large. In addition, hundreds of households growing sweet potatoes are having a headache because of the widespread damage caused by tuber rot disease. Many areas of sweet potatoes are growing well, producing large, standard tubers, but are infected with the disease, making it impossible for people to sell, even throwing them away right in the field...
According to Mr. Pham Tien Lam, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ia Sol Commune, Phu Thien District, this crop, Ia Sol Commune has about 700 hectares of sweet potatoes, nearly double that of last year. Of which, 80% of the area is damaged by worms, with varying degrees, greatly affecting people's income. There are many reasons leading to the outbreak of worms in the area such as care, prolonged hot weather, poor soil improvement or use of unsafe sweet potato varieties that carry pathogens.
Faced with the situation of increasing planting area of farmers, Mr. Lam said that the Commune People's Committee has repeatedly advised people not to massively expand the area of sweet potatoes; must use seeds of clear origin or need to carefully treat the soil before planting. Besides, people need to cooperate with cooperatives and enterprises to consume and stabilize product output, avoiding being forced to lower prices by traders. However, many households still spontaneously plant and massively expand the area. As a result, many sweet potato fields are damaged by weevils, while prices have dropped sharply, causing farmers to face double losses...
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Phu Thien district, one of the reasons for the outbreak of the weevil disease is that the price of sweet potatoes has dropped this year, leading many households to neglect to invest in care and disease prevention. With the current price of sweet potatoes at 3,500 VND/kg, the income is not enough to cover the investment costs. Especially for households that rent land to grow, they are losing more. This is an expensive lesson for sweet potato growers due to the massive expansion of acreage, causing supply to exceed demand.
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| Businesses join in "rescuing" sweet potatoes for Gia Lai farmers |
Faced with the situation of continuously decreasing sweet potato prices, farmers are facing the risk of losses, responding to the call of the Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee to request businesses to connect agricultural products consumption for farmers growing Japanese sweet potatoes, the GO!, Big C, Tops Market supermarket system of Central Retail Group in Vietnam implemented the program "Accompanying Gia Lai farmers", selling sweet potatoes without profit, with a selling price of 9,900 VND/kg at GO!, Big C supermarkets in the Central and Southern regions and a price of 10,900 VND/kg at GO!, Big C supermarkets in the North.
The program starts from April 11, 2024 and ends when the market shows signs of stabilization. It is expected that within 1 week of applying the program, the supermarket systems GO!, Big C, Tops Market will consume about 80 tons of sweet potatoes from Gia Lai farmers, contributing to solving the output, so that the price of sweet potatoes gradually stabilizes again, helping farmers avoid falling into a loss situation.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Van, Communications Director of Central Retail Group, said that as soon as she learned about the sharp drop in sweet potato prices, as a retailer, the company immediately launched the program "Accompanying Gia Lai Farmers".
“To speed up this activity, the company is working with suppliers to bring sweet potatoes from Gia Lai province into the supermarket system. Hopefully, the program will help stabilize sweet potato prices, helping hundreds of sweet potato farmers avoid the situation of a good harvest but falling prices,” said Ms. Van.
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