Gladiolus prices plummet, gardeners are bitter because of huge losses...
Many flower growers are in a "half-crying, half-laughing" situation because of the "sour" price of gladiolus. Currently, the selling price of gladiolus has plummeted from 30,000 VND/plant to less than 15,000 VND/plant, many households are fed up with the sad gladiolus season.
The sluggish sales have left many farming households in An Phu commune, Pleiku city (Gia Lai) unable to prepare for Tet because they are worried about paying off debts...
I thought that this year's gladiolus season would be better because it started earlier than before, but it was not a happy time because the price dropped dramatically. Specifically, in some gladiolus gardens in village 3, An Phu commune, they harvested to sell on the full moon day of December but only sold for 15,000 VND/plant, before that, gladiolus was still priced at 30,000 VND/plant.
This year the price of gladiolus has plummeted, making many people discouraged about harvesting.
Mr. Tran Thanh Hien (35 years old, living in village 3, An Phu commune) sadly said: “Every season is boring, I don’t know if I should continue to grow these types of Sophora japonica because when the harvest is good, the price drops, when the price is good, the harvest is bad. The total cost of more than 1 sao now is about 20 million VND, not to mention the care. If the price is 30,000 VND/tree, a sao of gladiolus can earn 50-60 million VND, but this year I’m afraid I won’t be able to earn 30 million because the price has dropped by half. Like that, I’m going to lose everything, but I can’t make any profit, while a crop of gladiolus takes 80 days to harvest, which is not a small amount…”.
Gladiolus plants with big and even flowers like this only cost 15,000 VND.
Last year, the harvest was poor because the gladiolus bloomed late, so this year, Mr. Hien and his mother discussed a plan to plant the plants early, but it was useless. They had to reluctantly sell the gladiolus garden for 15,000 VND/plant. According to the reporter's records, at this time, some gladiolus gardens in village 3 had quite low prices, but because they planted the plants early to sell on the full moon day, they had to reluctantly accept the price of 15,000 VND/plant.
Bored with gladiolus, Mr. Hien is planning to grow another type of flower to sell for Tet.
"The price drop may be due to the weather and supply exceeding demand. Many gardeners think that the weather this year is favorable so they sow more seeds. This leads to a loss of price because the amount of imported flowers is quite large...", Mr. Hien added.
On the other hand, some gardeners in village 9 are worried because the price of gladiolus is constantly fluctuating. Accordingly, many gardeners who planted later are waiting for a "warmer" price. With 2,000 square meters of gladiolus, Mr. Tran Huong (village 9, An Phu commune) is also placing his hope on this year's Tet flower crop.
If the price is 30,000 VND/plant, 1 sao of gladiolus can earn nearly 60 million VND.
"Last year, the entire 2,000 square meters of gladiolus flowers did not fully bloom until the 29th of Tet, so we lost a lot of money. In my ten years of growing flowers, last year I only encountered the situation of flowers blooming late... But this year, I don't know why, some gardens are now charging very low prices, our garden here planted seeds later, so we don't know what the price will be. I hope the price will increase by Tet, otherwise we will lose money again...", Mr. Huong confided.
