Summer fruit prices drop in full swing

At this time, summer fruits in Dong Nai are entering the peak harvest season. However, gardeners in the province are worried because prices are continuously falling.

Gardeners in An Phuoc commune (Long Thanh district) harvest mangosteen. Photo: B.NGUYEN

This year's summer fruit season is nearly a month later than usual, the yield of many crops is low, but the price of many types of fruit has still dropped sharply, making many gardeners restless.

* Late season, reduced productivity

This summer fruit crop, farmers growing rambutan, mangosteen... in the province are worried because they are facing three negative impacts at the same time: late harvest, productivity, and prices lower than previous years.

Ms. Bui Thi My, owner of a mangosteen and rambutan garden in An Phuoc commune (Long Thanh district) said that this year, possibly due to the influence of erratic weather, young rambutans have fallen a lot, greatly affecting the harvest yield. Mangosteen trees also suffered crop failures and late harvests. The mangosteen output harvested by the garden at the beginning of the season decreased by about 40% compared to the same period every year. This year, in particular, mangosteens have two flowering periods instead of blooming at the same time as every year. The second batch of fruit will be difficult to harvest because the fruit will be hard and damaged when ripening at the peak of the rainy season.

In Dong Nai, the price of grade 1 durian is from 55-57 thousand VND/kg, grade 2 is from 40-42 thousand VND/kg and grade 3 is under 30 thousand VND/kg. To get a good price, farmers take good care to increase the percentage of high-quality fruit.

Sharing the same concern, Mr. Nguyen Van Trung, owner of a rambutan and mangosteen garden in Binh Loc commune (Long Khanh city) compared: “This year, rambutan and mangosteen are both harvested a month later than in previous years. The productivity of mangosteen trees is not as good as in previous years; the rambutan fruit is smaller in size, so it is difficult to get a good selling price. Meanwhile, the increasing costs of fertilizers, pesticides, and care also “eat away” the profits of gardeners.”

Summer fruit season is the time when many gardeners increase their income thanks to the garden tourism model. Late fruit season also affects the activities of these gardeners.

Mr. Tran Van Loc, a farmer who does garden tourism in Binh Loc commune, said that every year, from May, many types of fruits such as rambutan, mangosteen, etc. ripen; the garden has entered the season to welcome visitors to enjoy summer fruits. This year, the summer fruits are all in season late, and the garden also opens to welcome visitors later. It is expected that from June 2023, summer tourists will flock to the garden in large numbers.

* Deep price reduction

The market rule is that when supply decreases, agricultural products will be sold at good prices. This year, summer fruits are late in season and have a poor harvest, but prices are much lower than in previous years. Currently, the price of rambutan sold in the garden is only about 6 thousand VND/kg, Thai rambutan is about 12 thousand VND/kg, mangosteen is from 25-28 thousand VND/kg, only 1/3 of the price compared to the previous month.

Mr. Ho Duc Tan, representative of the Dau Giay Agricultural Products Wholesale Market Management Board (Thong Nhat District) said that the current output of fresh fruit to the market is only 60-100 tons/day, a 40% decrease compared to the same period last year. Every year, during the harvest season, the supply is low, and all kinds of fruit have high prices. But this year, the productivity is low, and the price of fruit is still falling rapidly due to very weak purchasing power in the market.

Some fruit traders in the province commented that the fruit market is currently very sluggish due to the difficult economic situation, consumers are tightening their spending, and fruit is not a priority item.

Even durian, which has always been at a high price, is now unstable because of its erratic price fluctuations. According to a representative of Thanh Trung Packing Facility (Long Khanh City), 2 months ago, traders were competing to hunt for durian to export to China, so the price of this item was up to 70-80 thousand VND/kg. But recently, Thailand has started its harvest season and increased exports to the Chinese market, so the domestic durian price immediately decreased by about 20 thousand VND/kg compared to last month.

Binh Nguyen

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