Ben TreThe price of dried coconut increased to 180,000-190,000 VND every tens of 12 fruits, a record high, but the gardeners did not have goods sold because they were playing in the season.
In the last days of March, Ms. Le Thi Thuy (30 years old, Giong Trom) said that due to the scarcity of coconut, every day the traders had to scour the hamlet to buy. In the main case, every day Ms. Thuy bought more than 1,500 fruits, and at this time, the coconut production was only half.
“The price of dried coconut is 180,000-190,000 dong a dozen but farmers have no goods sold,” Thuy said.
Basing dried coconut coconut in Giong Trom. Image: Thuong Son
Mr. Le Van Non (51 years old, Chau Binh, Giong Trom) said that the family has 0.7 ha coconut over 10 years old. For many years, the price of dried coconuts plunged due to epidemics, limited exports, sometimes only 1,000 dong each made the gardeners lose. At the end of last year, the price began to rise again, sometimes up to 140,000 VND.
“A few days ago, I sold nearly 500 fruits for 187,000 VND each, except for the cost of fertilizer, labor still earned more than 5 million,” the garden owner said and said this price is higher than the previous years from 2.5 to 3 times.
More than 20 km away, at noon, Mr. Phan Thanh Tha, (42 years old in Huu Dinh commune, Chau Thanh) is with his son and dredging ditches and mud for nearly 3,000 m2 coconut garden.
Mr. Tha said, each year at this time due to the shortage of water shortage, farmers have little fruit. Nearly a month ago, he harvested the last coconut. Therefore, these days, although the price of coconut is high, the garden is no longer left to sell.
“The gardeners mainly take care of trees waiting until July of the lunar calendar, at that time the rain will fall in the main season of the harvest,” Tha Tha said.
Ben Tre has about 80,000 hectares of coconut, accounting for about 42% of the country’s coconut area and about 88% of the Coconut area in the Mekong Delta with an average output of over 700 million fruits. At the end of last year, the province exported the first coconut lot into the Chinese billion -dollar market.
Mr. Huynh Quang Duc, Deputy Director of Ben Tre Department of Agriculture and Environment, information at the present time, coconut in the opposite crop, the output decreased by about 50%. Plus the situation of some countries with large coconut area like India is losing crops, dry coconut is scarce pushing raw coconut prices and coconut products in the water.
The agriculture sector is guiding people to change their organic cultivation habits. The whole province has 32 cooperative groups, 34 cooperatives with a total scale of more than 13,000 hectares with more than 6,500 members. In particular, more than 20,000 hectares of organic coconut, accounting for 25% of the province.
Thuong Son