Farmers are 'sour' because of the...good lemon crop

(Baonghean.vn) - Their livelihood depends on hundreds of hectares of lemons, yet this year, lemon growers in Nam Kim commune (Nam Dan) are in tears because the lemon crop is good but the price has dropped miserably.

Nam Kim Commune is one of the largest lemon "barnhouses" in Nghe An with a total area of ​​192 hectares. The people's lives here are improved largely thanks to the income from lemon gardens. However, this year, although the lemon harvest is good, the selling price is two or three times cheaper than previous years. The refrain "good harvest, low price" of lemon is making the people of Nam Kim miserable.

Coming to Eo Vong hamlet, one of the hamlets with the most lemons in Nam Kim, is the image of bright yellow lemon gardens stretching across the hillsides. Mr. Dang Van Chuong, the biggest lemon grower in the hamlet with a total area of ​​nearly 5 hectares, said: In previous years, each sao of lemons only harvested less than 1 ton of fruit, but this year every household had a good lemon crop with 1 sao yielding 1.5 tons of fruit. This year, the price dropped, so he harvested several dozen tons of lemons, but Mr. Chuong only earned a few dozen million VND, a loss compared to last year.

Mr. Nguyen Van Long is cutting off the ripe lemon branches to allow the lemon crop to bear fruit.

In Trang Nay hamlet, whenever we met anyone who asked about this year’s lemon crop, we all received the same answer: “Lemons have a good harvest, but prices have never fallen as badly as this year!” Mr. Nguyen Van Hue’s lemon garden is also not outside the “list” of families “sour” because of… lemons. Mr. Hue’s family planted more than 2 sao of lemons, harvested nearly 2 tons but sold them for less than 7 million VND.

“Each kilo of lemons sells for 1 to 2 thousand dong, not enough to pay for fertilizer and transportation fees to traders...”, Mr. Hue said. On the morning of November 30, Mr. Hue sold the remaining 100,000 dong worth of beautiful lemons in the garden and earned 100,000 dong. The remaining 500 kilos of lemons were ripe and yellow, so traders did not buy them, so Mr. Hue had to leave them like that until they all fell off the garden.

People feel sorry for the lemon gardens that are ripening, but have no buyers.

In previous years, the price of lemons sold in the garden was quite high, each kilo was sold for 5 to 7 thousand dong, but it was not enough to sell to traders. The lemons on the trees were still green, but people still picked them to sell because of the good price. This year, the lemon crop was good but the price was cheap, so they were left to ripen from one garden to another.

Mr. Nguyen Van Long (Trang Nay hamlet) planted 1 hectare of lemons and harvested more than 10 tons but only earned 10 million VND. "In previous years, for every 100 kg of lemons I earned 500,000 VND, this year 100 kg of beautiful lemons can only be sold for 100,000 VND." According to Mr. Long, this year lemons were imported from the South in large quantities, every household had a good harvest, and the output was unstable, depending on local traders buying, so the price of lemons dropped sharply.

Along with Mr. Hue and Mr. Long, Mr. Le Trung Cong's family, who grows more than 6 sao of lemons, and Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hoai's family, who grows nearly 1 hectare, are also in trouble because of the falling price of lemons. Mr. Cong's garden still has several hundred kilograms of ripe yellow lemons in it that cannot be sold.

Beautiful lemons like this only sell for 1 to 3 thousand dong per kilo.

Mr. Trinh Quang Hung - Chairman of Nam Kim Commune People's Committee said: "Never before has the price of lemons fallen as sharply as this year, the people of Nam Kim Commune are in dire straits because of lemons. Currently, the locality has not found any solution to overcome this situation for the next lemon seasons."

Thien Thien