Faced with acid rain, Hong Quang Tien grapefruit specialty suffered a disastrous crop failure.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Loan in Quang Tien ward, Thai Hoa town is wrapping paper bags to protect the remaining grapefruits. Photo: Quang Huy.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Loan is one of the famous pink grapefruit growers in Trung Nghia block, Quang Tien ward, Thai Hoa town. Having been attached to grapefruit trees for decades, she clearly understands the technical process of growing grapefruit and understands the economic value that this crop brings. However, due to an acid rain in the first lunar month, more than 1 hectare of her family's grapefruit flowers fell off and the young fruits that had just set rotted.

Mrs. Loan said: At the beginning of the grapefruit flowering season, a rainstorm caused the grapefruit garden to lose all its flowers, and the young fruits as big as a fingertip also turned yellow and fell. Last year, my garden earned more than 500 million, so this year I might earn 100 million.

According to the survey, 100% of the grapefruit growing area in Quang Tien has suffered a crop failure. Some families even lost everything. Although the grapefruit growers in Thai Hoa are all experienced in caring for the grapefruit, due to the acid rain that lasted for 3 consecutive days at the beginning of the season when the grapefruit trees were flowering and bearing fruit, most of the grapefruit area suffered a crop failure.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Cong in Trung Nghia block, Quang Tien ward, Thai Hoa town, sadly standing next to a grapefruit tree. Photo: Quang Huy

Mr. Nguyen Hong Cong's family in Trung Nghia block, Quang Tien ward has 2 hectares of Quang Tien pink grapefruit in the business period, each year thanks to growing grapefruit, Mr. Cong's family earns over 850 million VND. But this year, due to the influence of the weather, the family's grapefruit fruiting rate is only about 30% compared to last year.

Mr. Cong said:I have been growing grapefruit for a long time but there has never been a year like this. The care process is guaranteed and strictly followed but the fruit does not set. If last year my family had to use more than 20,000 paper bags to wrap the fruit, this year we only used about 4,500 bags. According to the calculation of the number of fruit wrappings in the family, the fruit yield has decreased by about 70%.

This year, the rate of grapefruit fruiting is only about 30% compared to last year. Photo: Quang Huy

Mr. Mang Ngoc Phu - Head of Hong Quang Tien grapefruit cooperativeExchange: There has never been a year when grapefruit growers have suffered such a bad harvest. This year, the care process is guaranteed, the trees are good, green leaves and many flowers, but the fruit set rate is very low. It is true that the rain has had a very bad impact on grapefruit trees. Currently, we are instructing people to continue to take good care of fruit trees so that the fruit is beautiful and of guaranteed quality.

Thai Hoa town currently has 80 hectares of Hong Quang Tien grapefruit, of which over 40 hectares are in commercial operation. Each year, grapefruit growers sell about 1,000 tons of grapefruit to the market, with an average selling price of 25,000 VND/kg, farmers earn about 25 billion VND. However, due to crop failure, this year's grapefruit output only reached about 30% of the amount of fruit compared to previous years. It is estimated that grapefruit farmers have suffered tens of billions of VND in losses.