Joy for ginger growers in Ky Son

(Baonghean) -Faced with the news that Chinese ginger contains toxic preservatives, many businesses have returned to purchasing domestic ginger products, pushing up domestic ginger prices. In the last days of May, ginger trading activities in Ky Son were bustling, businesses from everywhere came to Ky Son to collect ginger, pushing ginger prices from 3,000 VND/kg - 3,500 VND/kg to 7,000 VND/kg (price on May 31).

According to the Ky Son District Industry and Trade Department, in the last week of May, on average, over 200 tons of ginger were purchased by businesses in the area every day for consumption. The price of ginger kept increasing day by day, making many people who sold it the day before feel regretful about it. Even the Huong Son Cooperative, a unit that regularly purchases ginger in the district, which used to have to sell ginger everywhere, was overwhelmed by the rapid increase in ginger prices.

Mr. Nguyen Van Luan - Chairman of Huong Son Cooperative, said: "When the price of ginger dropped dramatically, no one bought it. We went everywhere to offer our products but few people placed orders. But when domestic ginger "reigned", in the past few days, many businesses drove up to directly purchase ginger, causing the price of ginger to increase rapidly. We also had to raise the purchase price. Because the price increased rapidly, two contracts signed by the cooperative yesterday were at a loss today because other businesses competed to buy and raised the price..."



Buying ginger in Ky Son.

Dragong Company Limited is one of the enterprises that regularly purchases ginger in Ky Son area through the Huong Son Cooperative. But this time, with many companies in the South and the North concentrating on purchasing ginger, Mr. Nguyen Van Hiep - Director of the company, personally came from Hanoi to directly direct the purchasing work. Through coordination with the Cooperative, small traders and small businesses in the area, Mr. Hiep's company has purchased over 800 tons of ginger for export.

Ms. Nguyen Hoai Khue - Director of Duong Dai Co., Ltd. and 4 employees went from Ho Chi Minh City to Ky Son, directly purchasing, hiring people to select ginger, packing and hiring trucks to transport the goods for export. Ginger trading activities in Ky Son area therefore took place bustlingly with cash payments being made quickly, there was no situation where businesses were slow to pay for goods from small traders like before. Currently, the price of ginger in Ky Son area has increased much more than in the first months of 2013 and the whole year of 2012. Although the price is not as high as the peak of previous years (there was a time in late 2010, early 2011, the price of ginger was over 20,000 VND/kg), but this is a good opportunity for people in the area who are "locking" ginger in the ground to harvest, sell and enter a new planting cycle.

According to preliminary statistics, in 2013, Ky Son had over 8,000 tons of ginger. Since the beginning of the year, over 6,500 tons of ginger have been harvested. For a time, due to low prices, many ginger growers did not harvest, leaving them on the fields. During that process, a large amount of old ginger rotted, reducing output. At present, the ginger season is over, so the remaining quantity is mainly concentrated in some remote areas of Na Ngoi commune, which has the largest ginger area in Ky Son district with over 250 hectares.



Ky Son ginger is considered to be fleshy, low in fiber, and delicious.

From Muong Xen town to the commune center is nearly 70 km, the road is difficult to travel, but businesses have brought vehicles to collect ginger from the villages in the border area. Together with his wife and children to harvest the remaining 2 sao of ginger, Mr. Vu Chu Xo in Keo Bac village (Na Ngoi) confided: "This year we planted about 4-5 sao of ginger, after Tet the price was cheap but we still had to sell more than half to buy rice and food. Now we have harvested everything. If we harvested in the right season, each sao would yield about 1.4 tons, but now the ginger has rotted a little. The remaining area only has about 2 tons..." With the ginger purchase price in the village of 6,500 VND/kg, Mr. Xo's family earned nearly 13 million VND to reproduce and spend on life.

Regarding the output of ginger products, Mr. Tran Van Hoa - Head of the Department of Industry and Trade of Ky Son district, said: "To have the current ginger products, the departments and branches of Ky Son district have supported the people a lot in terms of varieties and care techniques. There was a period when ginger prices were high, so people developed on their own, increasing the area to over 700 hectares. But from 2012 to now, due to low prices, the area has decreased to 350 hectares. Currently, ginger consumption in Ky Son is completely dependent on foreign customers. What is the demand, how much ginger is needed (?) From this perspective, the district's functional departments do not know, let alone the people in the highlands...".

Obviously, when the ginger purchase price increases, it means that ginger growers in Ky Son have the opportunity to increase their income from productive ginger hills, but that opportunity, in the long term, is still a matter of concern. According to a survey by the agricultural sector, ginger in Ky Son can develop in the direction of both increasing the area and intensive farming, increasing productivity. But the key problem is that the output is not stable. The desire of the government and the people is that businesses and cooperatives join hands to help Ky Son people build a ginger brand, thereby guiding people to invest in intensive farming, increase productivity and consider this as one of the directions for stable production development, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction in Ky Son.

Nguyen Son