High seed prices make Nghe An farmers nervous about Tet flower season

For this year's Tet flower crop, Ms. Duong Ngoc (Hoi Son commune, Anh Son district) planted 60,000 chrysanthemum plants to supply the Tet market and the New Year's holidays. After consulting many different flower sources, she was surprised when the price of flower seeds increased dramatically.

“The price of chrysanthemum varieties has increased sharply, some varieties are 3 times higher than previous years. If in previous years it was only about 2 million VND/10,000 plants, now the price of root-net chrysanthemum is up to 5-6 million VND/10,000 plants,” said Ms. Ngoc.

At this time, flower growing areas such as Nghi Lien, Nghi An, Hung Dong (Vinh City), Nghi Long, Nghi Thuan (Nghi Loc), Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Anh Son... are preparing to plant flowers to serve the Tet market.

According to Ms. Vo Thi Van, an agricultural officer of Nghi Long commune (Nghi Loc), chrysanthemum is a traditional crop in the locality. This year, the whole commune plans to plant about 1 hectare of chrysanthemum, but the price of chrysanthemum seeds has increased so much that growers are facing many difficulties.

“This year’s chrysanthemum varieties have increased 1.5-2 times compared to last year. Every year, I usually buy seeds to supply to people, but this year, the price of chrysanthemum seeds is expensive, so I don’t dare to stock up, I only buy when there are pre-orders from people,” said Ms. Van.

With 30 years of experience growing flowers for the Tet market, this year, Mr. Nguyen Van Duc (Long Son ward, Thai Hoa town) planted 35,000 chrysanthemum plants. The price of chrysanthemum seeds has increased, and there have been years when he has to buy poor quality products, so for many years, he has bought chrysanthemum tissue cells of all kinds from Da Lat to grow and incubate them himself, both for his family to grow and sell to the market.

Although he has the initiative to source seeds and is "self-sufficient", according to Mr. Duc, input prices have increased and the cost of making chrysanthemum seeds has increased, so this year he has had to increase the selling price to 3.5 million VND/10,000 plants (an increase of about 500,000 VND/10,000 plants compared to last year).

"Because the gardeners are all familiar, even though the price of chrysanthemum seeds on the market has skyrocketed, I have only increased the price slightly to encourage growers," said Mr. Duc.

According to chrysanthemum seed distributors, the reason for the sharp increase in flower seed prices is that flower growers in Nghe An mainly source from the North, but the Yagi storm has caused many areas of flower seeds to be wiped out, many parent flower gardens died young, thus, the supply of chrysanthemum seeds to the market is limited. Flower seed prices have therefore been pushed up. Not only chrysanthemums but also other flower varieties such as lilies, pansies, dahlias, gerberas, gladiolus... are all higher than last year.

Specifically, lilies have increased in price by 2,000-3,000 VND/bulb (depending on the type), and dahlias have also increased in price by 2,000-3,000 VND/dozen. Not to mention, when flower seeds are expensive and scarce, farmers will have difficulty buying quality seeds.

“I planted a trial batch at the end of September, ordering 10,000 seedlings of various types from a garden in the North. When I received the goods, the number of seedlings I ordered was not enough (a bundle of 100 plants only contained 80 or 90); the goods were not as promised, for example, chrysanthemums, out of 100 plants/bundle, about 10% had rotten roots, 10% were branches, not seedlings, many plants were weak…”, said Mr. Nguyen Ba Toan, a Tet flower grower in Nam Dan town (Nam Dan).

For flower growers, Lunar New Year is the most important and anticipated season of the year. However, entering this year's flower season, flower farmers are worried because the cost of investing in seedlings, materials, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. has all increased. Besides the sharp increase in costs, what worries flower growers most at the moment is the issue of consumption.

This year, the economic situation is difficult, prices of essential goods are high, consumers are tightening their spending, so flowers are not the priority or choice of many families. Flower growers are worried about the consumer market decreasing compared to previous years.