600 hectares of Japanese sweet potatoes at risk of rotting

"Stuck" with sweet potato plants

Known as a region specializing in growing key industrial crops such as coffee, pepper, rubber, etc., in recent years, due to the sharp decline in prices of coffee, pepper, and rubber and unstable consumption, many farmers in Gia Lai have sought to switch to other crops, especially Japanese sweet potatoes because of their good prices.

However, many households are facing the risk of losing everything and incurring heavy losses due to low prices and no buyers.

Many households in Phu Thien district have invested in growing sweet potatoes on an area of ​​up to several hectares, but currently the price of sweet potatoes is falling sharply and consumption is very slow, so people are worried and restless. Photo: Tran Hien

It has been almost 2 weeks since the harvest season, but Mr. Tran Van Tuyen's family (Kim Mon village, Chu A Thai commune, Phu Thien district) still has no one to sell their 3 hectares of Japanese sweet potatoes to, while many of them have begun to sprout and are spoiled. Mr. Tuyen has to sell them retail at the markets at 5,000 VND/kg for large potatoes and 1,500 VND/kg for small potatoes.

However, traders still find ways to criticize and only buy good quality tubers, so Mr. Tuyen can only sell a part of the tubers, the remaining 2/3 of the potato area must be plowed to plant spring rice in time. Meanwhile, Mr. Tuyen said the investment cost for each hectare of Japanese sweet potatoes is up to 50 - 60 million VND.

Kim Mon village, Chu A Thai commune, Phu Thien district has more than 100 households growing Japanese sweet potatoes, but so far, only a few households have contacted traders to buy them. Most households are in a deadlock, "it's a pity to throw them away, but it's a sin to keep them" because they cannot find an outlet for their products.

Ms. Trinh Thi Thuy, in Kim Mon village, said that because she could not sell the potatoes, did not have money to hire someone to dismantle them, and no one would take them for free, her family had to plow and chop up 2 hectares of potatoes in the field to use as green manure to grow rice. However, Ms. Thuy said that next season her family will continue to grow sweet potatoes because there is no better choice.

“We don’t know yet, if people grow potatoes, we still have to grow them. We lost money this year, so we have to continue next year. We have started something and have to continue. Hopefully next year, the price will be stable so that people can benefit,” said Ms. Thuy.

Previously, in the 2015 crop, sweet potato prices also dropped sharply, causing many families to suffer losses. However, in the 2016 and 2017 crop, sweet potato prices increased again, and people had a good income.

On average, each hectare of sweet potato yields 20-25 tons of tubers, with some places yielding up to 40 tons of tubers/ha. If the selling price remains stable at 10,000 VND/kg like in 2017, growers can earn a profit of no less than 100 million VND/ha, twice as much as rice. Therefore, although sweet potatoes are difficult to sell in 2018, people still plant them on a large scale.

The company abandoned the deposit.

Mr. Phung Trung Toan, Chairman of the People's Committee of Chu A Thai commune, said that local people have started growing sweet potatoes since 2011, but consumption depends entirely on traders. The situation of having a good harvest but no output still happens occasionally.

Although there were businesses that had deposited money to buy sweet potatoes, they eventually "ran away" because they were afraid that the sweet potatoes they bought would not be sold.

According to Mr. Toan, this year the sweet potato crop has come but no traders have come to buy it. Some businesses even paid a deposit of 50 million VND to the people but accepted the loss and did not come to buy it. The whole commune has about 300 hectares but only about 4-5 households have sold a few tons to the market.

This crop, Phu Thien district has nearly 700 hectares of sweet potatoes, mainly in Chu A Thai and Ia Sol communes.

According to Mr. Bui Trong Thanh - Head of the Agriculture Department of Phu Thien district, this is the third crop that people grow after the rice crop to improve the soil and increase income. On average, each hectare of sweet potato costs about 50 - 60 million VND.

For households renting land, this cost can be up to 80 - 90 million VND/ha. Because they cannot find an outlet for sweet potatoes, this crop, Phu Thien people suffered heavy losses.

"The district is not yet clear about the situation of no traders coming to buy, so the department will send officers to check to find a solution, helping people feel secure in production," said Mr. Thanh.