Tay Ninh: Farmers in trouble because of low cassava prices

The province currently has the largest number of cassava starch processing factories, accounting for more than 35% of the industry’s total output and playing a key role in export. However, since the beginning of 2025, the purchase price of fresh cassava has continuously decreased, causing many farmers in the province to fall into heavy losses.

Cassava farmers in Tay Ninh worry about losses due to low cassava prices

Cassava growers at a loss

In key growing areas such as Tan Chau, Tan Bien, Chau Thanh and Ben Cau, Tay Ninh province, the weather since the beginning of 2025 has been rainy, combined with the widespread mosaic disease on cassava plants, which has reduced the yield and quality of cassava tubers.

Meanwhile, the purchase price at the factory has dropped sharply. As a result, growers have almost no profit, and even suffer heavy losses if they have to rent land for production.

After harvesting 9 hectares of cassava, Mr. Phan Quoc Binh (An Loc hamlet, Hao Duoc commune, Tay Ninh province) sadly said: "The money from selling cassava is only enough to pay for fertilizer and land preparation, the family has to pay for labor. This crop, my family lost about 50 million VND."

However, Mr. Binh is still optimistic that he is better off than many other households, because he cultivates on his own land and does not have to pay land rental fees.

Farmers harvest cassava

From a trader’s perspective, Mr. LVD shared that in previous years, the price of cassava fluctuated from 3,000 to 3,500 VND/kg, but since the beginning of this season, it has only been 1,800 to 2,000 VND/kg. Currently, the price has increased to about 2,300 VND/kg for the type with 29 to 30 starch points, but is still much lower than in previous years.

"With this price, farmers growing on their own land may break even, but if they rent land, they will definitely lose 10-20 million VND/ha," said Mr. Dung.

According to Mr. Dung, most of the cassava growing areas in the districts of Chau Thanh, Ben Cau and Tan Bien (old) are rented land, with an average price of about 20 million VND/ha/year. When adding the cost of land preparation, fertilizer, and labor, farmers almost always fall into a loss.

Low cassava purchase price at the field, causing many farmers to fall into losses.

Fear of "good harvest, low price"

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, Tay Ninh is a locality with favorable natural conditions for many types of crops: rubber, sugarcane, rice, fruit trees, etc., of which cassava was once considered a "poverty escape tree" for tens of thousands of farming households, especially people in areas near the border.

From 2022 to the first half of 2024, cassava prices in the province increased due to scarce supply, bringing good income to people. However, that "price fever" resulted in many areas of sugarcane, rice, and even fruit trees being destroyed to chase after cassava, regardless of market risks.

According to the Vietnam Cassava Association, from the end of 2024, import demand from China, the market that consumes more than 90% of Vietnam's cassava output, will decrease due to the sharp drop in prices of many raw materials such as corn, forcing many domestic factories to sell starch at low prices to turn around capital.

By the beginning of 2025, the price of cassava was only 2,300 - 2,600 VND/kg, and by March it had dropped to below 1,900 VND/kg. By the end of June, the price had slightly recovered but had not yet exceeded 2,300 VND/kg.

Workers carrying cassava after harvest

In the 2024-2025 crop year, Vietnam's cassava starch export output will increase by nearly 15%, but the export value will decrease by 19%. This is the sharpest decline in 10 years, causing difficulties for both cassava processing enterprises and farmers.

In the context of the Chinese market being so dominant, the price of cassava falling is inevitable when depending too much on a single consumption channel. While cassava starch today has wide applications in many fields such as food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, light industry, etc., businesses have not yet expanded their markets to other regions outside of China.

Cassava processing line of a business in Binh Minh ward

Faced with this situation, some opinions suggest that farmers should be more cautious in pursuing cassava acreage while ignoring other traditional crops. The Department of Agriculture is researching and guiding people to diversify crops and apply techniques to improve product quality to reduce risks.

At the same time, the province also needs to have policies to encourage businesses to seek and expand new export markets, avoiding the situation of "good harvest, low price", and growers suffering losses./.

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Source: https://baolongan.vn/tay-ninh-nong-dan-lao-dao-vi-gia-khoai-mi-xuong-thap-a201609.html