Hybrid acacia prices fall, many localities seek ways to convert crops

(Baonghean) -In recent years, forest growers in our province have been struggling because the price of planted forest wood has fallen dramatically. In the districts of Quy Chau, Con Cuong, Quy Hop ... forest growers are massively cutting down and selling young acacia trees at the same price as ... firewood. Many localities are struggling to convert hybrid acacia trees to other trees with higher economic value. However, the problem of "conversion" is extremely difficult.

These days, walking along the communes of Chau Quang, Chau Cuong, Dong Hop... (Quy Hop), we see on both sides of the road a lot of acacia hybrid wood that has been peeled off by people waiting to be sold. Mr. Nguyen Van Hoai in Quynh Tien hamlet, Tam Hop commune, lamented: "I invested so much effort and money to plant more than 4 hectares of acacia hybrid with the hope of getting rich from this "poverty reduction" tree. But when exploiting acacia wood, it is not enough to cover the cost of exploitation and transportation. Each hectare of acacia can only be sold for over 30 million VND, which is a loss. I have been worried a lot, if I continue to plant acacia, my whole family will be in debt, I have considered switching to growing rubber trees. The cost of planting rubber is quite high, but I have to plant it recklessly, I cannot afford to let 4 hectares of land grow grass".

Mr. Phan Van Chau in Dinh hamlet, Tam Hop commune, said: “My family used to grow more than 2 hectares of hybrid acacia, but sold it off to traders for only 25 million VND/ha. After harvesting, I borrowed 120 million VND from the bank to invest in growing over 2 hectares of rubber. The most difficult thing about converting crops is that the technical process of caring for rubber trees has to be self-taught, consulted from many places, and at first the seedlings died and had to be bought and replanted. My family's rubber trees are 2 years old, but only after 5 years can we get the resin. But the worrying thing is that households in Minh Hop commune have also converted from acacia to rubber. They are now selling the resin but it is sold illegally, at a low price, and some households have cut down rubber trees to switch to growing sugarcane.”

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Tam - Agriculture and Forestry Officer of Tam Hop Commune said: The whole Tam Hop Commune has about 300 hectares of raw material forest, due to difficulties in output, only about 50 hectares of acacia can be consumed. The general mentality of the people is that the price of acacia is too cheap, so they break even or lose money, so they want to switch to growing other valuable trees. In fact, 10 households in Dong Chao and Dinh hamlets have switched from hybrid acacia to growing over 14 hectares of rubber. The remaining area is very difficult, mainly barren land, and can only grow cassava. Growing rubber trees costs a lot and no enterprise has signed an output contract, so many households will convert some of the acacia area after harvest to grow sugarcane.

Buy hybrid acacia in Thanh Chuong.

In Chau Quang commune, many households growing acacia are in similar situations. Mr. Sam Ngoc Du in Diem Bay village said: "I only harvested nearly 40 million VND from nearly 2 hectares of acacia, a heavy loss. Now I am going to consult about planting rubber trees, but if I continue to plant acacia, it would be better to leave the land empty." But when asked about growing rubber trees, Mr. Du is very confused, currently no one has guided him on the process of planting and caring for rubber trees, and he does not even know where to buy quality rubber tree seeds. He has only heard that growing rubber trees will bring high profits in the future, but he does not know that borrowing money to plant rubber trees with high costs could be like a "gamble" and end up empty-handed. It is known that Chau Quang commune has nearly 100 hectares of young acacia trees aged 3-4 years, but farmers have sold them to traders at cheap prices.

Mr. Vi Thanh Tuong - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quy Hop district added: The district has over 16,000 hectares of hybrid acacia, the largest area in the province, with about over 4,000 hectares of acacia reaching harvest age. However, many communes massively harvest young acacia to sell, the price is only over 20 million VND/ha; mature acacia reaches over 40 million VND/ha; in general, the price is too cheap, growers suffer losses.

The reality is that, but converting hybrid acacia trees to other crops is also very difficult. Because most of the acacia trees are mainly grown on barren hills, for this type of land only replaces high-yield cassava, however, growing cassava will be difficult to sell because factories already have raw material areas. Some areas after planting acacia, people have proactively converted to rubber and sugarcane, but there are very few. As for the district, there has not been found a way to effectively convert hybrid acacia trees to other crops. The only suggestion is that after construction is completed, Nghia Dan MDF and wood processing factory needs to sign a contract with the raw material area to consume products for people, so that acacia growers do not have to worry about output.

In many other districts such as Quy Chau, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Anh Son, Yen Thanh... people are also having to sell young acacia at cheap prices. Mr. Nguyen Vinh in Don Phuc commune - Con Cuong, said: He planted 4 hectares of acacia but due to harvesting young acacia, the sale price was only over 20 million VND/ha. Currently, his family has replanted over 2 hectares of acacia, the remaining area does not know what to convert to to replace hybrid acacia. It is known that Don Phuc has over 300 hectares of acacia, currently over 150 hectares have been harvested, the replanted area is only over 50 hectares of hybrid acacia, the rest are people do not dare to plant acacia for fear of loss. The whole Con Cuong district has 10,000 hectares of raw material forest, of which over 4,000 hectares of hybrid acacia are ready to be harvested, over 80% of the area has been sold.

Mr. Vi Ngoc Quynh - Vice Chairman of Con Cuong District People's Committee added: The district is conducting a survey to coordinate with enterprises to plant over 3,000 hectares of rubber, in which some forest owners will convert from acacia trees to rubber, and it is expected that rubber planting will be implemented in 2013. Hopefully, rubber trees will bring economic efficiency because enterprises will take care of consuming rubber products for farmers.

It is known that our province has over 60,000 hectares of raw acacia trees that are "stuck" in the output. Traders are freely forcing the price of acacia to be equal to the price of ... firewood, making acacia growers more miserable. It is time to have a reasonable planning and crop conversion to avoid the situation of "every household growing acacia".

Mass planting of acacia without orientation and planning associated with traffic, there are many locations planted in deep valleys without access roads. Not to mention the lack of technique and capital, growers leave it to the weather, so this is also the reason leading to low economic efficiency.

For Nghia Dan MDF and Wood Processing Factory, it is necessary to implement the signing of product consumption contracts for people to build raw material areas right from this time. Do not let it be like Tan Hong Pulp Factory which signed a "fake" contract with people and then closed down. For areas that can be effectively converted such as cassava, sugarcane, rubber, orange growing, it is necessary to encourage people to convert.

Van Truong