Raw glue prices in Nghe An hit a record high

Farmers in Quy Chau district are excited because the price of acacia has increased to a record high. (In photo: Acacia purchasing in Quy Chau district). Photo: Van Truong

Mrs. Tran Thi Minh in Chau Binh commune, districtQuy Chauexcitedly said: The price of raw acacia has been only at 700,000 - 900,000 VND/ton for a long time, but in the past 2 months, the price of acacia has increased to 1.3 million VND/ton. On average, 1 hectare of acacia previously only earned a profit of 40-50 million VND, but now it has reached 80-90 million VND after deducting labor and transportation costs.

The high price of acacia has caused many households to rush to harvest young acacia trees. Some households in Chau Binh commune (Quy Chau) shared: If young acacia trees are sold, wood productivity will decrease, but with the current high price, acacia growers still make a profit, so we have to harvest early because we are afraid that the price will drop later.

Some wood processing facilities in Quy Chau collect acacia to reserve for production during times of high prices and scarcity. Photo: Van Truong

Mr. Le Van Toan - Chairman of Chau Binh Commune People's Committee added: Chau Binh commune currently has over 3,000 hectares of acacia (the largest area in Quy Chau district), the commune harvests over 350 hectares of acacia every year, at this time, the high price of acacia helps acacia growers increase profits. For example, Mr. Hong Thai's household in village 34 has just harvested 10 hectares of acacia with a profit of over 800 million VND, Mr. Vi Thuan's household in Ke Mong village harvested 20 acacia with a profit of over 1 billion VND... Currently, the commune is propagating to acacia growers to limit harvesting.young glueto increase economic value.

Mr. Luong Tri Dung - Head of the Department of Agriculture of Quy Chau district said: The whole district has over 29,000 hectares of raw acacia, every year the district harvests and plants over 3,000 hectares of new acacia. Raw acacia when purchased from the forest has increased to a record price of over 1.3 million VND/ton. With this purchase price, raw acacia growers have made a big profit. Quy Chau farmers are excited to start planting new acacia right after harvesting.

High acacia prices have forced Quy Chau residents to exploit young acacia trees for sale. Photo: Van Truong

Coming to Hung Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district these days, people are busy harvesting raw acacia along the hillsides. Mr. Minh Tuan, owner of an acacia garden in Hung Thanh commune, shared: My family has 3 hectares of acacia, traders come to buy it, there is no longer the situation of forcing down prices like before. With acacia price of more than 1.3 million VND/ton, my family has a decent income to cover our living expenses.

According to the representative of Hung Thanh Commune People's Committee, the whole commune has over 400 hectares of raw acacia, currently there are 5-6 units in the province and Thanh Hoa coming to the commune to compete to buy acacia. Not only the acacia tree trunks but also small branches are bought by traders.

Mr. Le Van Hong - Head of the Agriculture Department of Yen Thanh district shared: The whole Yen Thanh district has over 12,500 hectares of raw acacia, harvesting over 2,500 hectares of acacia annually. The purchase price of raw acacia wood has reached the highest level in the past 10 years. That encourages people to actively participate in planting production forests combined with economic models under the forest canopy to increase income. However, to stabilize the output of acacia trees, Yen Thanh district is in dire need of businesses to sign contracts to consume products, to avoid the situation of unstable raw acacia prices as before.

Harvesting acacia in Yen Thanh district. Photo: Van Truong

Through research, it is shown that at this time, traders from everywhere flocked to Quy Chau, Quy Hop, Nghia Dan districts... to buy glue, so a shortage of goods occurred.

Currently, many plywood and chip processing facilities in Nghe An are seriously lacking raw materials. A plywood factory owner in Yen Thanh district shared: Previously, we could buy 30-40 tons of raw glue every day, but now we can only buy 10-15 tons of glue, so the factory has to operate at a low level.

Mr. Nguyen Khac Hai - Head of Forest Use and Development Department (Forestry Sub-Department) added: Nghe An currently has nearly 170,000 hectares of raw acacia forest, annually exploiting over 60,000 hectares. Currently, 768,562/1.5 million m of concentrated planted forests have been exploited.³.

The reason for the recent increase in raw acacia prices is that after the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for consumption of industrial plywood processing factories has increased. In addition to being sold to the Chinese and Japanese markets, some European countries have recently consumed a lot of plywood products, contributing to the high price of acacia. Not to mention that due to the current increase in acacia prices, people are harvesting massively, causing the area of ​​acacia trees in harvest age to decrease.

Glue is gathered in Tay Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district and then transported by traders to other provinces. Photo: Van Truong

In particular, Nghe An currently has 2 pellet processing factories in operation, so the demand for acacia wood raw materials has increased. Specifically, the large-scale biomass pellet production factory of Biomass Fuel Vietnam in VSIP Hung Nguyen Industrial Park has an investment capital of 28,300 billion VND, raw material demand of 300,000 tons/year. The biomass pellet production factory of Thanh Chuong Wood Production and Trading Joint Stock Company has a raw material demand of 300,000 tons/year, producing 150,000 tons of pellets/year.

At this time, the relevant sector has granted sustainable forest certification (FSC) for more than 10,000 hectares of raw material forests. Currently, the relevant sector is continuing to carry out procedures to grant certification (FSC) in the coming time for more than 13,000 hectares of acacia forests in the districts of Anh Son, Nghi Loc, Yen Thanh, Con Cuong, Do Luong...

The grantsustainable forest certification(FSC) will benefit people from harvesting large timber forests, increasing economic value, especially being signed by businesses to purchase products without worrying about price drops or price pressure.