Sweet - bitter
(Baonghean) - It's hard to remain calm when watching Vietnam Television broadcast scenes of farmers in Ca Mau burning entire sugarcane forests, all because they couldn't sell their produce.
On a weekend afternoon, it seemed that compassion led me to stop at a roadside sugarcane juice stall, as if to "sympathize with the people."This year has two September months, and the afternoon sun, slanted like potatoes, is still occasionally stifling and uncomfortable. The "sidewalk economy" remains bustling with the lively pushcarts selling sugarcane juice. It can be said that sugarcane juice, a naturally sourced, affordable beverage, has been one of the best-selling drinks on the market in recent years. No one seems to complain about the price; perhaps few people drink it because it's cheap. Even with the change of seasons, it remains at 10,000 dong a glass, also known as a "large cup," a price that has been the "floor price" since 2013. Of course, it doesn't care about the fluctuating fuel prices.
It seems there's already a billionaire who made a fortune from what's called "super clean sugarcane juice." Even now, there's packaged sugarcane juice under the Shake brand. Of course, the person who manufactured the sugarcane juice-making machine has long since become a billionaire! Around the sugarcane crop, there are not only diligent and hardworking people, but also those who are good at calculations. Each sugarcane stalk yields an average of 4 glasses of juice, each glass costing 10,000 VND, so the "output" is about 40,000 VND per stalk. Selling a few dozen stalks a day, "that's enough money for my grandchildren's education, sir," (according to one vendor). Once, I visited a sugarcane juice stall and asked the vendor about her "winter business strategy," and learned that "in the cold weather, we have grilled sugarcane, steamed sugarcane with ginger; these are very popular now." Ah, so that's it. A quick calculation revealed that the sugarcane juice vendor's income is double mine – a civil servant with a salary coefficient of 6/9.
Congratulations to you, congratulations to what we call "street vendor economy," a topic we'll probably discuss another time. Apologies to the sugarcane juice vendors; in writing this, I have no intention of comparing incomes. You work hard, you toil day and night to earn a few pennies from others. No one who is rich chooses to be a "pushcart vendor." You deserve respect for your honest hard work; you deserve an income like that, and even more. However, if we were to line up, would the sugarcane farmers ahead of you ever get to relax and enjoy a glass of super-clean sugarcane juice? Well, that's a long story. First, let me address the bitter paradox: farmers burn their sugarcane while sugar processing and trading companies continue to reap huge profits.
The clearest evidence is right here on the stock market: 246 billion VND is the substantial profit that Bien Hoa Sugar Company earned in the first nine months of 2014 (a 60% increase compared to the same period last year)! Similarly, Ninh Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Company made a profit of 213 billion VND, a 50% increase compared to the same period. In the same vein, Lam Son Sugar Joint Stock Company, Thanh Thanh Cong - Tay Ninh Sugar Joint Stock Company, Gia Lai Thermal Power Sugar Joint Stock Company, and Son La Sugar Joint Stock Company also modestly pocketed tens to hundreds of billions of VND each. It's true that sugarcane juice is sweet, but sugar is even sweeter...
Returning to the story of the past few days, television, print, online, and even radio news outlets have continuously reported on the mass burning of hectares of lush sugarcane fields in Ca Mau, which were ready for harvest. The fires continue to rage, drying up countless drops of honest, hard-earned sweat, fueled by inadequate and cold-hearted policies.
It seems that for many years, many stories have unfolded, filled with bitter, sour, and even painful situations, all stemming from the phenomenon of following the crowd in economic activities. The herd mentality led to the discarding of tomatoes, the feeding of purple-fleshed sweet potatoes to pigs... Then came the uprooting of coffee plants to grow pepper, then cashew nuts... And so it went. Lessons followed lessons, as farmers silently paid for their own groping steps alongside the indifferent "managers" often called traders. "Traders," please have some compassion for the people! Just a few days ago, after successfully destroying his sugarcane fields, a farmer candidly told Vietnam Television: "It's terrifying! I'll never grow sugarcane again; my family has decided to switch to growing watermelons!"
So, they've switched to growing watermelons. Growing watermelons is good, the flesh is very red and the taste is sweet. But, it seems that farmer has forgotten about last year when hundreds of trucks carrying watermelons were stuck at the Tan Thanh border gate. You can burn unsold sugarcane, but watermelons are hard to burn, sir. We've had too many lessons. However, to be fair, recently, some localities have begun to offer directions that are gradually becoming more appropriate. Nghe An is one of the provinces that has been quite successful in linking raw material areas with processing industries; perhaps this is a good example to consider. However, generally speaking, on a national level, what is still lacking is a comprehensive policy at the macro level, a nationwide, even regional, connection. It's time we stopped leaving farmers to make policies in such a wild way. Don't let farmers throw away what they've worked so hard to produce. Sugarcane is very sweet, but it becomes very bitter when you set it on fire!
Nguyen Khac An
