'Rescuing' bananas and lessons in plant variety selection

While there are many banana "rescues" for farmers in Dong Nai and other southern provinces due to unsold bananas, at the second largest banana warehouse in the North of Mr. Pham Nang Thanh (Khoai Chau district, Hung Yen) "there is no goods to sell".

The Northern banana king said that although bananas are unsold in the South, in the North, he has no bananas to sell.

Known as the “banana king” of the North, Mr. Thanh said that he currently has more than 60 hectares of banana land in Hung Yen (not including the associated area), with an output of 3-4 thousand tons per year. The price of bananas in the North has been around 10 thousand VND/kg since the middle of last year, and there are almost no bananas to sell.

According to Mr. Thanh, his pink banana growing area is mainly for domestic consumption in supermarkets and markets, and a part is exported to Russia, South Korea and some Middle Eastern countries, and he "almost doesn't care whether China buys or not" which may affect his banana orchard.

Mr. Thanh said that the reason why Dong Nai people's bananas are unsold is because they are bananas (also known as South American bananas), grown mainly for export to China, so when China stops buying, of course our bananas are unsold.

Also banana, but if people grow pink banana it will be much safer, the price is up to 3 times higher, the market is very large, especially domestic demand is very large.

According to Mr. Thanh, if people in Dong Nai grow red bananas, with his current distribution network in the North, he can also support the purchase of a 20-ton container every day to sell domestically, because the demand is very high. However, that South American banana variety is really difficult to sell.

“The South American banana variety has a higher yield than the pink banana variety, and the harvest time is shorter, but the quality is not as good and the taste is blander. Even the bananas are too big, with bunches weighing up to 50-70 kg, so people are sometimes hesitant to buy them,” said Mr. Thanh.

According to him, with the banana variety that people in the South are growing a lot, if you want to export, you have to grow it in a cooperative, with someone "taking the lead". Especially, you have to grow it in a concentrated area, have a period of isolation from pesticides, mass produce new and beautiful designs, then you can export. If you do it like people in Trang Bom (Dong Nai), it will be very difficult to export.

People in Thong Nhat and Trang Bom districts (Dong Nai) are in a difficult situation when traders force down prices and refuse to buy bananas.

According to the "banana king" of the North, if people still grow spontaneously and without concentration, they cannot export. Not only bananas, but many other fruits as well, so there is a situation of "shortage is still shortage, surplus is still surplus".

Therefore, people must form cooperatives, grow on a large scale, agree on the same variety, and clearly record which days to spray pesticides and which days to fertilize. When harvesting, there must be a quarantine period, and it cannot be sloppy with foreign countries.

According to the “banana king” of the North, even he had to cooperate with cooperatives and purchasing businesses. He said: “The important thing is that we take care of all the techniques, inputs, and outputs. 1-2 months before harvest, we signed contracts, paid deposits to farmers, and bought at market prices, so they could rest assured. We cannot make promises just by mouth. Once we have signed a contract to take care of the output, no matter how expensive or cheap it is, I am the one responsible.”

According to TPO