Durian prices fall, traders beg farmers to sell at low prices to cut losses

On September 26, speaking with Lao Dong, the leader of the Dak Lak Province Durian Association commented that many local durian traders are currently in trouble, some even going bankrupt due to the continuous price drop over the past 2 weeks. The fact that fruit warehouse owners who buy goods for export are forcing down prices, not purchasing goods on time or paying traders late has caused many people to suffer.

The Association’s leaders stated that in reality, the fluctuations in market prices are completely normal. Before harvesting durian, the unit advised traders and farmers to be extremely alert in buying and selling to avoid possible risks.

It is predicted that this situation will continue in the coming days. In many warehouses purchasing agricultural products for export in some areas of Dak Lak province, in recent days, many traders have gathered to ask the business owners to pay for durian as promised but have not received any response.

Entering the "game" too late, when the price of durian was no longer at its peak, and tended to decline, Mr. NXT (Ea Knuec commune, Krong Pak district) shared: "I regret that I jumped on the durian bandwagon too late, the price has now dropped a lot, not as high as before. However, because I signed a contract with the fruit warehouse owner, and needed to deliver on time, I had to beg farmers to sell at a low price, to avoid heavy losses.

Three weeks ago, grade 1 durian cost more than 90,000 VND/kg, now farmers are only expected to sell for 70,000 VND/kg. Some people agreed to sell when they saw the situation, but others firmly refused.

From the Mekong Delta to Dak Lak with the hope of getting rich from durian, TVH ( Dong Thap province) choked up: "I still try to buy durian, sell it to the owner of the agricultural warehouse to salvage some capital (I have deposited 400 million VND with the owner of the durian garden - PV). Because many owners of large agricultural warehouses for export force the price too low, do not agree to buy at the price agreed before, forcing me to beg the farmers to lower the price.

Getting into this situation is partly due to bad luck and also due to lack of understanding of current events, not grasping the market rules and greed for profit. Many traders from the Western provinces who came here to buy durian have been devastated, abandoned their belongings and fled, unable to hold on any longer.

Statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dak Lak province show that the locality currently has 22,458 hectares of durian (harvest area of over 9,600 hectares), accounting for 43.2% of the fruit tree area. In 2023 alone, the harvested durian area is expected to increase to over 12,000 hectares, with an output of over 200,000 tons. Of which, Krong Pak district has the largest output and planting area.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Mr. NVD (Hoa Dong commune, Krong Pak district, Dak Lak province) shared: "My family also anticipated today's situation, so we agreed to sell durian at 78,000 VND/kg to traders 2 weeks ago and collected the full amount of 1.5 billion VND. If we had waited until today, we don't know if we could have sold it at that price or not. Many traders in the area started the crop season 1 month ago and are well-off, but those who entered the game late are struggling, even going bankrupt for billions of VND."

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