High acacia prices force Nghe An farmers to cut down and sell young acacia trees.
(Baonghean.vn) - After a long period of hesitation, from March 1st until now, the price of raw acacia has suddenly increased to 1.2 million VND/ton, making forest growers excited. In some localities, people have rushed to cut down and sell young acacia trees.
Present at the acacia forest in Nghia Long commune, Nghia Dan district, I saw farmers busily exploiting hybrid acacia, some peeling bark, others carrying acacia onto their trucks. Observing, I saw that most of the people were exploiting young acacia, some trees were only as big as an arm.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan in Nghia Long commune, Nghia Dan said: Although he knows that exploiting young acacia trees less than 3 years old will have low productivity, but now the price of acacia has increased sharply from 1 million VND to 1.2 million VND/ton, because he needs money, his family still has to cut it down and sell it.
According to some forest owners in Nghia Dan district, the exploitation of acacia trees under the right age has caused many losses. These include reduced productivity of planted forests, low quality of wood, and low actual profits, with only 45-50 million VND/ha after deducting costs.
Mr. Lam Van Thang - Head of the Department of Agriculture of Nghia Dan district said: Nghia Dan district currently has over 10,000 hectares of raw material forest, annually exploiting over 2,000 hectares. For a long time, many households planting production forests have a "quick-win" mentality, harvesting young acacia 3-4 years old mainly to sell for wood chip production, with low economic value.
The reason for exploiting young acacia is that forest growers lack capital to invest in production and need to cover their living expenses. For a long time, the district has not had any enterprises to purchase acacia wood products, so when the price of acacia increases, people take advantage of the opportunity to exploit it.
Nghia Dan district is stepping up propaganda and explanation work to help people understand the losses when selling young acacia. However, the district is in dire need of businesses to sign contracts and long-term product consumption contracts so that forest growers can feel secure in production and exploitation in accordance with the cycle to increase economic value.
At the same time, mobilize people to plant acacia trees interspersed with large timber forests to both increase economic value and contribute to the development of forestry in an effective and sustainable direction.
In Quy Hop district, there are many households exploiting acacia trees on schedule, so the productivity is quite high. A forest owner in Dong Hop commune said: His family is currently exploiting more than 3 hectares of acacia trees over 5 years old, with the current high price, the revenue is 120 million VND/ha, after deducting expenses, the profit is 80-90 million VND/ha.
Through research, it is known that many factories and acacia wood processing facilities in Nghe An and neighboring provinces have signed orders, which has pushed up acacia prices in recent times.
Mr. Ho Duc Dan - Director of Song Hieu Agricultural and Forestry Processing Enterprise shared: After Tet, we have found new orders, mainly selling laminated wood and wood blanks to the US and domestic markets, the price has increased again, previously 8.5 million VND/m3Laminated wood has now increased to 9.9 million VND/m3Thanks to finding an outlet, the unit created jobs for over 90 workers with stable salaries.
In Nghia Dan district, Thai Hoa town, some peeled wood processing facilities that previously had a lot of inventory have now been able to sell their products. The owner of a forest product processing facility in Quang Tien ward, Thai Hoa town said: Before Tet, peeled wood products were cheap, only 2 million/m3no one bought, now increased to 2.5 million VND/m3.
Nghe An currently has over 170,000 hectares of raw acacia forests, exploiting over 50,000 hectares annually. Many acacia wood processing factories in Nghe An have now signed orders in Japan, the US and the domestic market, pushing up acacia prices. Contributing to promoting the movement of planting production forests to improve farmers' income.
However, in order for production forests to develop sustainably, according to experts, Nghe An needs to have a mechanism to encourage companies and corporations to participate in investing in supporting forest owners and people in planting raw material forests, and consuming products to create a stable, quality source of raw materials to avoid the situation of people selling young acacia trees, which affects the province's forest planting goals.
