The price of watermelon sold in the fields in the eastern districts and towns of Gia Lai province has dropped to an unimaginable level, from 300 - 1,700 VND/kg.

Looking at the pile of dozens of tons of melons, Mr. Pham Van Luan, a melon grower in An Trung commune, Kon Chro district, lamented: “I grow 2 hectares of melons, investing a total of more than 300 million VND. This year the weather is erratic, so the melon crop failed, instead of harvesting about 50 tons/ha, now it is only half. Strong winds, melon leaves hit the melons, causing the melons to be defective. In my entire melon field, I only selected more than 40 tons, selling for 1,700 VND/kg. The remaining 60 tons are sold to whoever comes to buy. Traders forced down the price, so that amount of melons can only be sold for more than ten million VND. It's so pitiful!”

Mr. Pham Van Luan in Kon Chro district welcomes a bitter melon season

Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Phu Hiep in An Khe town has been growing melons for more than 13 years and shook his head, "This year's melon season is so bitter." Mr. Hiep invested more than 300 million VND in growing 2 hectares of melons, but the yield was halved, only 50 tons. He sold more than 25 tons of melons for export at 1,000 VND/kg. The rest of the melons are waiting for traders to come and buy them at a price of only 300 VND/kg or less. It takes 5 kg of melons to buy a glass of iced tea.

Despite selling at such a low price, Mr. Luan and Mr. Hiep are luckier than many other farmers whose melon fields are unattended. They have no choice but to harvest and transport them to other places to sell at a loss. The rest are fed to livestock and poultry, but they are also… fed up with the melons because there are too many. Therefore, farmers have to leave the melons rotting in the fields.

According to incomplete statistics, the districts and towns in the east of Gia Lai planted more than 400 hectares of watermelon this crop year. About more than half of the watermelon area ripened during the Lunar New Year, so it could be sold for 5,000 - 7,000 VND/kg. But with productivity down more than 50%, the money earned was just like taking the labor to make profit. Currently, thousands of tons of watermelons are left behind, unable to find a way out, making farmers feel like they are sitting on fire.

The reason for the low price of watermelons, said Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Lich, Secretary of the An Khe Town Party Committee, is: “Farmers do not listen to the recommendations of the authorities and plant watermelons in large quantities. The price is imposed by the buyer. Many families are in dire straits because of such a bitter watermelon crop…”.

Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh, a trader who has been transporting watermelons to China for many years, said: "I also want the price of watermelons to go up and sell them conveniently to buy for farmers. But at this time, hundreds of trucks carrying watermelons from various places are stuck at Tan Thanh international border gate (Lang Son). The watermelons are very unsold, and the price has dropped to a record low." According to Ms. Thanh, watermelons exported to China must weigh 5 kg or more and be unblemished. Therefore, the number of rejected watermelons must be up to 2/3. On average, farmers invest 130 - 150 million VND per hectare of watermelon. According to calculations, with such cheap watermelon prices, farmers only get back less than 20% of their investment.

With prices down, traders are choosing at will, causing more melons to be crushed and discarded. Mr. Thanh, a melon grower in An Khe town, said bitterly: "I just sold more than 10 tons of rejected melons for... 1.5 million VND"./.

According to VOV