Farmers in Nam Dan strike it rich as pumpkin prices reach record highs.

After the floods subsided, the water on the riverbanks and fields receded, and farmers in Thuong Tan Loc commune (Nam Dan district) rushed to the fields to harvest the first pumpkins of the season. Pumpkins, grown for their fruit, have become the main crop of the autumn-winter season in this low-lying commune.

“Pumpkin plants have been growing in Thuong Tan Loc for three years now. This is a drought-tolerant crop, easy to care for, resistant to pests and diseases, and has a fairly high yield. Pumpkin plants are sown in early June, harvested in September, and continue until October,” said Mr. Tran Xuan Hung, Director of the Thuong Tan Loc Agricultural Service Cooperative.

According to statistics, the entire Thuong Tan Loc commune has 90 hectares of pumpkins, with 700 households growing them. Some households cultivate as much as 4-5 sao (approximately 1000 square meters), while others cultivate at least 1 sao. The pumpkin harvest coincides with periods of heavy rain and storms, when green vegetables are scarce in the market, so the price of pumpkins usually remains high, around 4,000-6,000 VND/kg.

However, this year, due to the impact of storms and heavy rains, vegetable-growing areas in the North suffered severe damage, pushing the price of pumpkins to a record high. Currently, the selling price at the farm is 10,000-11,000 VND/kg, 2.5 times higher than last year.

According to estimates, each plot of land requires an investment of approximately 800,000 to 1 million VND. Now, the pumpkin plants have yielded their second and third harvests, resulting in a good crop and good prices, so the farmers are delighted.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien, from Minh Tan hamlet, Thuong Tan Loc commune, said: “This season, my family planted 4 sao (approximately 0.4 hectares) of pumpkins, and we've already harvested the third crop, yielding about 5 quintals of pumpkins. We estimate the total production for the season will be around 2 tons of pumpkins. This year, the pumpkin crop is abundant and the price is good, so we're very happy. After deducting expenses, we'll earn about 20 million VND.”

The price of pumpkins this season is very high, at times reaching 12,000 VND/kg, and currently at 10,000 – 11,000 VND/kg, double the multi-year average and four times the price in 2022.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, a trader specializing in buying pumpkins in Nam Dan and supplying them to other places, said: "This year's pumpkins are very easy to sell; I buy as much as the farmers harvest. Some days I buy tons of pumpkins. The price is many times higher than in previous years, so they are easy to buy."

Thượng Tân Lộc pumpkins are a type of bottle gourd, known for their fragrant, chewy texture and long shelf life. Each fruit weighs only 1-1.5 kg, making them popular in the market. Besides harvesting and selling mature fruits, during the plant's vigorous growth stage, the shoots and flowers are harvested and sold as a nutritious vegetable. Young fruits can also be sold for food processing, fetching 10,000-15,000 VND/kg.

As the locality with the largest area of ​​pumpkin cultivation in the entire province, the crop brings high economic efficiency to the alluvial land. However, the people of Thuong Tan Loc do not intensively cultivate bottle gourd but practice crop rotation; after the watermelon harvest, they plant pumpkins, and after harvesting the pumpkins, they plant sticky corn or peanuts, or vegetables.

Thanks to this, the pumpkin plants don't "get tired of the soil," isolating them from disease sources, resulting in high yields and good quality. And most importantly, pumpkins from the autumn-winter crop always fetch higher prices than other crops throughout the year because green vegetables are scarce during this time.