Chrysanthemums and raspberries bloom early, gardeners in the ‘flower capital’ of Tet suffer heavy losses

At noon on January 13, Ms. Duong Thi Truc Xuyen, 42 years old, stood blankly next to a raspberry chrysanthemum garden of about 1,000 m2 with more than 2,500 pots in An Hoa hamlet, Cho Lach commune. There is still nearly half a month left until the time of sale, but the entire flower garden is already in full bloom, bright yellow.

“Last year, at this time, traders came to deposit 170,000 VND per pair. Minus expenses, my family profited about 100 million VND,” Ms. Xuyen said.

This year, because the flowers bloomed unusually early, traders were cautious about purchasing. To date, she has only sold about 500 pots at a price of 140,000 VND per pair, 30,000 VND lower than every year. The remainder still have no output.

Not far away, the raspberry chrysanthemum garden of more than 3,000 pots of Ms. Truong Thi Lac, 54 years old, is in a similar situation. The garden owner said that this year the flowers grew well, the flowers were big, even, and beautiful, so a familiar trader in the Central region once placed a deposit to buy the entire garden for 170,000 VND per pair. However, because the flowers in the garden bloom early, four days ago they only purchased 600 pots.

According to her, the cost of fertilizers and materials has increased this year. The total investment capital for the flower crop is about 100 million VND, plus 20 million VND for land rent, but so far it has only earned more than 40 million VND. Unable to sell flowers, in recent days she has been harvesting cucumbers intercropped in the garden to have money to cover living expenses.

“My husband and I plan to sell the remaining flowers at low prices to the retail market, hoping to save some capital,” Ms. Lak shared.

In An Huy hamlet, Cho Lach commune, Mr. Thai Cong Hiep, 49 years old, has just set the price of more than 3,000 pots of raspberry chrysanthemums with traders at 120,000 VND per pair.

“Previously, they paid a deposit of 170,000 VND. Because the flowers bloomed early, each pair lost 50,000 VND, not including the care. In this case, my family lost nearly 100 million VND,” Mr. Hiep said.

According to gardeners, raspberry chrysanthemum is a long-term flower, from sowing to harvest it takes about 6 months. This year, due to prolonged unseasonal rain, many flower gardens bloomed early, forcing them to “bigly reduce prices”. Some households with a high bloom rate sell flowers for only 100,000 VND per pair, but still have difficulty finding buyers, so they have to display flowers on the roadside for retail sale.

Cho Lach flower village (former Ben Tre province), along with Sa Dec (Dong Thap), are the two largest flower and ornamental plant growing areas in the West.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Vinh Long, this year’s Tet flower crop in the locality has about 10-12 million flower and ornamental plant products, concentrated mainly in the communes of Cho Lach, Hung Khanh Trung, and Vinh Thanh.

Gardeners lose money because raspberry daisies bloom early

Mr. Tran Huu Nghi, Vice Chairman of Cho Lach Commune People’s Committee, said that the locality has more than 3 million flower and ornamental products serving the Lunar New Year of the Horse, of which mainly raspberry chrysanthemums, Dutch chrysanthemums and yellow apricot blossoms. Currently, about 50% of products have been ordered by traders, with prices ranging from 150,000 to 200,000 VND per pair.

“Due to unseasonal rain, about 30% of the raspberry chrysanthemum area bloomed prematurely,” Mr. Nghi said, adding that the province’s agricultural sector is instructing people to spray and apply technical treatments to limit damage.

Hoang Nam