Many 'royal orange' trees in Nghe An are shedding fruit en masse, the cause is unknown.
In a few dozen days, the orange area of Xa Doai Nghi Dien will enter the ripening season. However, many gardeners do not dare to accept advance orders because the oranges have been shedding fruit since September and are still continuing to shed in large numbers.
As one of the largest orange growers in Nghi Dien commune, Mr. Phan Cong Huong's family's 3 orange gardens (Yen Phuc hamlet) are nearly 1 acre (0.5 ha) wide with over 400 orange trees, of which about 250 are currently being harvested, the rest he has just planted a few years after destroying the old, degraded orange garden.
If last year's orange crop, each orange tree produced an average of 100 fruits, he earned nearly 500 million VND with 200 orange trees bearing fruit, this year, although there are 50 more trees with fruit, the output and income is only about half. "That is in the case that the oranges stop falling, but if they continue to fall like this, I'm afraid the crop will be very bad. Up to now, thousands of oranges have fallen from my garden," Mr. Phan Cong Huong worried.
At the beginning of the season, Mr. Huong’s family’s three orange gardens bore beautiful and abundant fruit. However, starting in September, oranges began to fall in large numbers. There were days when he collected a whole bag. In the garden, under many orange trees, there were large, beautiful oranges that had turned yellow and fallen all over the ground; many trees had lost nearly half of their fruit, and some had even lost 90% of their fruit. On the trees, many oranges had not yet fallen but were showing signs of spoilage.
According to Mr. Huong, oranges falling off had happened before, but that was in years of heavy rain and flooding, and oranges were waterlogged. This was the first time oranges had fallen off en masse for unknown reasons, while the orange trees were still green and healthy, without pests or yellow leaves. After asking everywhere but not finding the disease, he was worried, confused and impatient, so he went to Hanoi and Bac Giang to "ask for help" from experts and long-time orange growers.
Checking the garden, they also suspected it was due to frost and advised spraying. I just finished spraying once, the oranges have continued to fall for the past few days, now I can only hope this situation will end soon.
Mr. Phan Cong Huong - Yen Phuc hamlet, Nghi Dien commune, Nghi Loc
With 80 orange trees, Mr. Pham Dinh Tien in Phuong Son hamlet expected to harvest nearly 5,000 fruits. However, like many other gardens in the commune, his family's orange garden has also gradually thinned out after many days of continuous fruit loss. "Up to now, more than half of my garden has lost its fruit," Mr. Tien said.
In a few more weeks, the Xa Doai orange area in Nghi Dien commune, Nghi Loc - the most expensive orange variety in Nghe An will begin to ripen and enter harvest season. However, since August, most orange gardens have seen a phenomenon of oranges falling en masse.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thiet, an officer of the Commune's Land and Agriculture Department, said: In addition to 10 hectares of Mr. Trinh Xuan Giao's farm, the commune currently has more than 30 hectares of Xa Doai oranges scattered in people's gardens, with about 50 households growing them, of which 15 hectares produce stable fruit every year. Being a famous orange growing area not only known in the province, each year, orange trees bring in an income of 17-18 billion VND for local people.
This year, due to fruit falling, the orange output in the commune has decreased sharply, and revenue will decrease significantly when the selling price remains stable as every year. As a famous specialty orange variety, the area is small, each garden only has from a few dozen to a few hundred trees, but the number of fallen fruits is currently up to hundreds, making people feel heartbroken.
Unlike other oranges, Xa Doai oranges are not sold by weight, they are sold by fruit, with prices ranging from 70,000 - 80,000 VND/fruit, and in some years up to 90,000 - 100,000 VND/fruit.
With a sweet taste and characteristic aroma, the orange flesh is golden yellow, melting in the mouth when chewed. In the past, this was a precious product used as an offering to the King. Nowadays, Xa Doai oranges are bought by customers as gifts, displayed on the Tet fruit tray, soaked in wine...
Usually, several months before Tet, customers from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and many other provinces and cities have come to choose and order unripe Xa Doai oranges. This year, facing the possibility of not being able to supply enough for Tet, many gardeners have been forced to refuse to accept deposits from customers.
