Farmers in trouble because Son La strawberries are mistakenly thought to come from China

For most consumers, strawberries are a high-priced fruit. Therefore, the fact that street vendors sell this product at low prices makes many people feel surprised, even worried.

Some individuals and organizations have questioned the origin of this type of strawberry and believe that it may be imported from China. However, the truth is that most of the cheap strawberries on the market originate from Son La .

Son La strawberries have never been priced up to hundreds of thousands of VND/kg. Photo: NVCC.

Local sales have plummeted after negative information about strawberries appeared on the Internet. Many farmers are facing the risk of "losing everything" because of the hasty turn away of consumers.

Reasons for strawberry price drop

80 thousand VND/kg is the price of strawberries sold in the market. This is an unprecedented low price in many years. Talking with, Mr. Nguyen Van Thuy, Director of Ichi Farm strawberry cooperative, said that Son La strawberry output this year is larger than previous years because farmers have a good harvest.

Strawberry shipments are arranged for transportation to wholesale markets in Hanoi . Photo: NVCC.

“Son La strawberries are in full bloom. The weather was not favorable at first, but due to the long sunshine, the strawberries ripened very quickly. Many households did not even have time to pick them,” Mr. Thuy shared.

In addition, he said that farmers earned quite good profits last year. Therefore, they planted 4-5 times more this year. This led to a high production of strawberries sold in the market.

Explaining the low price of this item, Mr. Thuy said that this problem indirectly comes from the shelf life of strawberries.

“This is a product that is difficult to preserve and is only at its best when used within the day. Therefore, to avoid unsold products, sellers will have to lower prices to sell the products as quickly as possible,” commented the director of the Ichi Farm strawberry cooperative.

Miserable because of doubts

In recent times, negative information about strawberries has seriously affected the livelihoods of local people. Many households have not yet recovered their capital, or even suffered heavy losses, when sales stagnated after only one day.

My unit used to sell 30 tons/day. After the news about the suspicious origin was published, the number dropped to only 10-15 tons/day. Mr. Nguyen Van Thuy, Director of Ichi Farm strawberry cooperative.

“People’s lives depend entirely on strawberries. My unit used to sell 30 tons/day. After the news about the suspicious origin was published, the number dropped to only 10-15 tons/day. Sales are very slow,” said Mr. Thuy.

Currently, Mr. Thuy’s strawberry cooperative only receives 10 tons/day because the products are not sold well. Some farmers are fed up and do not want to pick strawberries because they know that the selling price will not cover the costs of labor, transportation, truck fare, rental fees, etc.

According to the head of one of Son La’s largest strawberry cooperatives, local strawberries are mainly brought to the wholesale market in Long Bien and some fruit shops in Hanoi. In addition, he also affirmed that Son La strawberries never have high prices of up to 200,000-300,000 VND/kg as some information has been posted.

“Last year, the price of large strawberries was around 70,000-80,000 VND/kg. For small ones, it would fluctuate between 30,000-40,000 VND/kg. Currently, beautiful, large strawberries cost around 26,000 VND/kg, small strawberries cost around 15,000-20,000 VND/kg,” Mr. Thuy shared about the price of strawberries.

Not only that, he also said that Chinese strawberries are very different from Son La strawberries in both appearance and quality.

Specifically, Son La strawberries ripen quickly, cannot be preserved for long, the quality will decrease after a day and must be stored in the refrigerator. In contrast, Chinese strawberries can be left outdoors for 2-3 days and still retain their plumpness.

“Son La strawberries are picked the day before and transported to Hanoi that night to be sold the next morning. During storage, the strawberries will become watery and spoil if not kept in the refrigerator,” said Mr. Thuy.

Besides, Chinese strawberries will have harder and longer fruits. The stems will be fresher and bigger compared to Son La strawberries.

(Source: Zing News)

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Source: https://vtc.vn/nong-dan-khon-don-vi-dau-tay-son-la-bi-hieu-nham-den-tu-trung-quoc-ar748664.html