Kon Tum farmers dump watermelons for 1,000 VND/kg

The price of watermelon has dropped dramatically, to only 800 - 1,000 VND/kg, forcing farmers to reluctantly take their watermelons to Highway 14 (Ho Chi Minh Road) to compete with each other to sell them, but still not many passersby buy them.

Tons of melons have been harvested but have not been sold. Along the long stretch of Highway 14, piles of melons are strewn about, many rotten, and the stench permeates the area. A local resident said that the melons were thrown onto the road, causing some motorists to run over them and fall off their bikes, causing injuries.

Farmers have to sell watermelons on Highway 14 to recoup capital.
- Photo: Tran Thao Nhi

The scene was very different from the 2011 watermelon crop, when trucks came to the watermelon fields of farmers in Dien Binh commune, Dak To district (Kon Tum) to buy watermelons. Many private traders bought the entire field of watermelons at 8,000 VND/kg, but this year they were nowhere to be seen.

Mr. Truong Cong Trinh (living in Hamlet 4, Dien Binh Commune) has spent the past week "eating dew and sleeping in the wind" on the roadside of National Highway 14 to watch for melons. During the day, the whole family stands on the street to sell their melons. Whenever they see a car passing by, they wave their arms to invite people to buy melons, but only occasionally do a few people stop by to buy. "For more than three and a half months, the whole family has been in the forest growing and taking care of melons, and now they have to go out on the street to sell melons, but there are not many buyers," Mr. Trinh said sadly.

According to farmer Hoang Long (living in village 4, Dien Binh commune), last year the whole commune only planted about 50 hectares, but this year the area has increased to 150 hectares. The reason for the sudden increase in area is that at the same time last year, traders came in large numbers to buy, they went to the fields and then bought the whole area, they bought as much as they could, regardless of the size of the fruit... All of these melons were sold to China. But this year, no traders came to buy, they said that China had stopped "eating" melons. Therefore, even though at harvest time, farmers had a good harvest of 50-70 tons/ha with shiny melons weighing 12-15kg, they had to take the melons to the national highway to sell at a low price to recoup their capital.

Most households growing melons have to borrow money from banks to invest, each hectare must invest 150 million VND, including money for fertilizer, water pumps, labor... Mr. Trinh said his family grows 2 hectares, has to hire 5 workers (paying 4 million VND per month for labor), hires water pumps for irrigation at 7 million VND/ha, not including fertilizer... All of this money is borrowed from the bank.

"Each household now owes hundreds of millions of dong in debt that has not yet been paid. We farmers are suffering heavy losses and do not know how to repay our debts," Mr. Hoang Long said bitterly.

According to TTO-M