Mr. Dam Van Hung, the owner of Huong Mien Tay fruit trading facility in Ben Tre Province, the leading green-skinned exporter in the Mekong Delta, said that the price of green-skinned pomelos has declined sharply and farmers in Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Tien Giang, and Soc Trang provinces have been looking for traders but fruit trading facilities neglect to buy as consumption has been facing difficulties.
According to Mr. Hung, normally, his facility collects around 60 tons of green-peeled pomelos every day from farmers in the Mekong Delta and even the Southeast region of Vietnam. However, at this time, his facility can buy a maximum of around 6-7 tons per day though the price of pomelos is much lower compared to before the lunar New Year as exporting agricultural products via cross-border trade has been tightened since the outbreak of the Covid-19. Therefore, it is difficult for fruit trading facilities to transport green-skinned pomelos to the Chinese market.
The solution currently applied by fruit trading facilities in the Mekong Delta is to promote the consumption of green-skinned pomelos in the domestic market. Unfortunately, other types of fruits are flocking to markets as they also cannot be exported, making the consumption in the domestic market fail to improve significantly.
‘Currently, we have been cooperating with the agricultural sector of Mekong Delta provinces, cooperatives, and farmers to build the growing area code of green-skinned pomelos and traceability to meet requirements for exporting green-skinned pomelos to Europe and other markets, thereby reducing the dependence on the Chinese market in the future,’ said Mr. Dam Van Hung.
However, the current difficulty is that many green-skinned pomelo orchards in provinces in the Mekong Delta have passed the harvest time, some places are full of ripe pomelos but the consumption is extremely slow. Moreover, drought and saltwater intrusion have started to affect many pomelo orchards, posing a great risk of loss.
Mr. Dao Van Minh, a farmer in Quoi Son Commune in Chau Thanh District in Ben Tre Province, lamented that his green-skinned pomelo orchard has more than 1 tons of ripe pomelos left and he asked for VND20,000 per kilogram of pomelos but traders have not agreed to buy. He had to remove lots of small pomelos to reduce the burden for his trees and did not fertilize his orchard to avoid the risk of losing his trees due to saltwater intrusion.
According to Mr. Hung, normally, his facility collects around 60 tons of green-peeled pomelos every day from farmers in the Mekong Delta and even the Southeast region of Vietnam. However, at this time, his facility can buy a maximum of around 6-7 tons per day though the price of pomelos is much lower compared to before the lunar New Year as exporting agricultural products via cross-border trade has been tightened since the outbreak of the Covid-19. Therefore, it is difficult for fruit trading facilities to transport green-skinned pomelos to the Chinese market.
The solution currently applied by fruit trading facilities in the Mekong Delta is to promote the consumption of green-skinned pomelos in the domestic market. Unfortunately, other types of fruits are flocking to markets as they also cannot be exported, making the consumption in the domestic market fail to improve significantly.
‘Currently, we have been cooperating with the agricultural sector of Mekong Delta provinces, cooperatives, and farmers to build the growing area code of green-skinned pomelos and traceability to meet requirements for exporting green-skinned pomelos to Europe and other markets, thereby reducing the dependence on the Chinese market in the future,’ said Mr. Dam Van Hung.
However, the current difficulty is that many green-skinned pomelo orchards in provinces in the Mekong Delta have passed the harvest time, some places are full of ripe pomelos but the consumption is extremely slow. Moreover, drought and saltwater intrusion have started to affect many pomelo orchards, posing a great risk of loss.
Mr. Dao Van Minh, a farmer in Quoi Son Commune in Chau Thanh District in Ben Tre Province, lamented that his green-skinned pomelo orchard has more than 1 tons of ripe pomelos left and he asked for VND20,000 per kilogram of pomelos but traders have not agreed to buy. He had to remove lots of small pomelos to reduce the burden for his trees and did not fertilize his orchard to avoid the risk of losing his trees due to saltwater intrusion.
