Farmers cry because of a good tomato crop...

Sitting looking at trays of bright red tomatoes, Ms. Tran Thi Phuong in Hamlet 11, Quynh Thanh Commune (Quynh Luu) could not hide her sadness: "When picking tomatoes to import, traders buy them in moderation. I was impatient and had to take them to the markets to sell, but I only got a few hundred kilos, while each day we harvest several hundred kilos. All the money and effort we put in is considered a heavy loss."

Currently, even, beautiful tomatoes are bought for about 2,000 VND/kg. Photo: Tran Vu

According to Ms. Phuong, her family grows about 5 sao of tomatoes. The amount of money they spent on investment is quite large. For each sao of field, in addition to the cost of seeds and fertilizers, which cost nearly 2 million VND, they also have to buy bamboo poles to make trellises,Not to mention the efforts of nearly 4 months of care of the whole family.

"Eight mouths depend on it, but now it's unsalable and no one buys it. When traders come to buy it, the price is 1,000 - 2,000 VND/kg, but it still doesn't sell out," she sighed.

Ms. Phuong's family is one of hundreds of households in hamlets 1, 8, 9, 10, 11 of Quynh Thanh and Quynh Luu communes who have shed tears because of tomatoes. According to the locals, this year the quantity of tomatoes planted is large, combined with a good harvest, so the price has dropped dramatically. There are many ripe tomatoes, while traders buy few at the price of 2,000 - 3,000 VND/kg of large, beautiful tomatoes, making people miserable.

People feel heartbroken when tomatoes have been harvested but cannot be sold. Photo: Tran Vu.

Looking at the pile of tomatoes weighing about 200kg in the corner of the yard, Mr. Tran Cao said sadly: "If these tomatoes had been harvested before Tet, I would have had more than 2 million VND in hand. But since Tet until now, it has been very difficult to sell them."

To save the situation of unsold goods, many households have transported tomatoes to sell at retail markets. But the situation is not optimistic. “I sat at the market all day and only sold a few hundred kilograms of tomatoes, earning about 30,000 VND. That amount of money for many people is only enough to buy a bowl of pho. It is sad to think about farmers. To have a harvest, you have to invest a lot of money including seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides... but when it comes to harvest, the tomatoes are unsold, no one buys them,” said Mrs. Tran Thi Chien (village 9) sadly.

Tomatoes ripen bright red all over the fields but cannot be sold, making many households frustrated. “Many times I thought about destroying them to plant other crops, but thinking back, I feel sorry. So much money and sweat has been poured into it, now I can’t bear to do so. But just looking at the ripe tomatoes falling to the ground without being able to sell them is really heartbreaking,” one resident sighed.

Every day, a large amount of tomatoes accumulate at Mr. Ho Dao's purchasing point. Photo: Tran Vu

Mr. Ho Dao, a tomato trader, said that the current low price of tomatoes is due to mass production, depending on the market. According to him, this year the weather is favorable, the tomato crop is good, leading to oversupply, the consumption market is stagnant and prices are falling sharply.

Currently, he buys an average of 5 tons of tomatoes every day. However, the amount of tomatoes that are not purchased from people is still very large. Not to mention that in the commune there are 3 points that buy large quantities, but they still cannot buy all the ripe fruit every day.

Tomatoes are unsalable, so many households have had to feed them to livestock. Photo: Tran Vu

Sharing the same fate as tomatoes, other vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes... have also fallen in price miserably. Currently, large cabbages are sold for 1,000 - 2,000 VND/head. Many vegetable growers in the communes of Quynh Thanh, Quynh Luong, Quynh Minh, Quynh Van... have had to cut down vegetables to feed livestock and poultry to clear land for planting new crops.