Coming up again on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, farmers of plant fruit trees are busy taking care of the orchards to bring to the market beautiful and delicious fruits. In the Lunar New Year – Year of the Rabbit 2023, the worry about epidemics and obstacles in trade have subsided as farmers only expect for good harvest and good prices.
Many farmers are ready to serve the Tet market. In the photo: Sugar pomelo orchard of the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Dau produces about 5 tons of fruit during Tet holiday
Bac Tan Uyen district is strongly developing citrus fruit trees in the form of large-scale concentrated farms. Besides the cooperative models, the household economy also takes advantage of the soil and natural conditions to grow fruit trees. At the time, besides the farmers who choose to produce fruits in March and April, many focus on producing and supplying for the Tet market.
Weaving into the orange-leaf sugar pomelo orchard of Nguyen Van Dau's family at Lac An commune impressed us by the eye-catching shape of the pomelos pending for the harvest. Previously, on a garden of 4,000 square meters, Dau's family used to grow melaleuca trees, but the economic efficiency was not high. Realizing the convenient water source for irrigation and the suitable soil, in 2019 his family switched to growing orange-leafed pomelo. Dau said that the pomelo variety originated from Tan Trieu of Dong Nai province to have a rich taste and relatively easy to grow. Currently, the largest fruit is from 1.2 - 1.4kg; from now until Tet, it is expected that they may harvest about 5 tons. The advantage of orange-leafed pomelo is that 1 tree can be harvested for more than 20 years.
“Besides orange-leafed pomelos, the family also grows green-skinned pomelos and oranges with a harvest of about 10 tons each. For the upcoming Tet holiday, the family focuses on taking care of the orange-leafed sugar pomelo orchard, hoping to get a price to stabilize their income, and have a full and warm Tet. To produce quality products to serve consumers is the hardship of farmers,” Dau confided.
Similar to this time, the family of Phan Ngoc Lan at Hieu Liem commune is also eagerly looking forward to the Tet holiday. The 1,800 orange trees on an area of 5 hectares of land, each year, provide to the market more than 100 tons of oranges. “Last year, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the family’s orange sales was affected, and the price was low. This year, we expect to supply about 60 tons during Tet. Now I just hope for a high price to make up for the losses of the past year," Lan said.
Not only are small-scale orchard farmers eager for Tet, many cooperatives specializing in fruit trees are also ready to market large quantities of Tet fruits. Talking to us, Trinh Minh Thanh - Director of Dong Thuan Phat Agricultural Cooperative at Hamlet 2 of Thuong Tan Commune, said: “The cooperative has about 200 hectares; an average of 1ha provides about 30 tons of fruits. Thus, the quantity supplied to the market will be very large. There would be no shortage of supply, and farmers are just waiting for the price to be high to enjoy a warm and happy Tet.”
It can be seen that the influence of the epidemic and the difficult economic situation have partly affected the prices of agricultural products in the market, especially for small-scale production models that do not have a stable consumption market that mainly depends on traders who retain the standing worry about precarious prices.
For small-scale farmers with self-owned land, the risk factor is not high. However, for large-scale growers, they must always stick to reality and monitor the market to have a suitable production plan. Whether the production is on a small or large scale, we still hope that the market will always offer good prices to ensure stability and sustainable development.
Reported by Tien Hanh – Translated by Vi Bao
