Nghe An: The sun is blazing hot, but green squash costs 2,000 VND/kg but still cannot be sold.

Present at the pumpkin field of Ms. Pham Thi Tuyet's family in Lien Khai hamlet, Thanh Lien commune when she and some women were harvesting green pumpkins in the midday sun. The pumpkins were picked and piled up in the middle of the field, covered with tarps, waiting for traders to come and buy. Sweat soaked her shirt, while arranging the pumpkins, Ms. Tuyet said that her family grows 7 sao of pumpkins, with so much effort in caring for them, but now the price of pumpkins has dropped miserably from 1,500 - 2,000 VND/kg and they can't even sell them.

Old pumpkin beds in the fields in Thanh Lien commune. Photo: Huy Thu

All week, she waited for the truck to come pick her up but she only sold a few. Today, she decided to hire workers to harvest most of the ripe squash to sell. If she couldn't sell all of it, she would bring it home to dry and then sell it to people to make drinking water.

“When this squash is old, it cannot be left in the field because the plants and leaves will dry out and rot in the rain. If harvested and brought home, and well preserved, it will only last for 15-20 days. With a large quantity of squash, there is no space to store squash. In previous years, people here also stored squash, but later 1/3 of the quantity rotted. They sold it for a slightly higher price, but it was still not as cheap as selling it in the field,” said Ms. Tuyet.

Local people are harvesting squash. Photo: Huy Thu

Therefore, when it comes time to harvest the squash, even if it's cheap, the squash growers have to sell it all, because "it's not good to leave it in the field, and it's not good to bring it home either."

Similar to Tuyet's situation, Phan Ba ​​Thang's family (42 years old) in Lien Duc hamlet, although only growing 5 sao of squash, still fell into a "half-crying, half-laughing" situation. On the morning of June 9, Thang mobilized workers to harvest almost all the ripe squash in the field. He called the traders and waited until noon before a car came to buy them. After a while of bargaining, he had to sell off a carload of squash for 3 million VND, which turned out to be only 1,500 VND/kg.

Ms. Pham Thi Tuyet - a long-time pumpkin farmer in Thanh Lien commune said that the price of pumpkin has never dropped so dramatically and still not sold as well as it does now. Photo: Huy Thu

He transported the remaining harvested pumpkins to a corner of the house. Mr. Thang said: “My family currently has about 4 tons of pumpkins waiting to be sold, 2 tons have been picked, 2 tons are still in the field. The price of pumpkins is currently at an all-time low, but we still can’t sell them.

Mr. Thang said that the low price of pumpkin is due to low demand. Pumpkin is not transported to the North like previous years because there is a lot in the North. People in the surrounding area do not consume much, so the pumpkin is unsold. The low price of pumpkin is partly due to traders forcing down the price...

Pumpkins are piled up and covered with tarps in the middle of the field. Photo: Huy Thu

This late pumpkin crop, the whole Thanh Lien commune has about 100 sao of pumpkin, however the products made cannot be sold.

According to the people, with the current low price of pumpkins, selling all the pumpkins in the field is not enough to cover the costs. On average, each sao of pumpkin costs more than 2 million VND, including the cost of buying weeds (1 million VND/sao), buying seeds (300,000 VND/sao), buying plastic to cover (230,000 VND/sao), buying fertilizer, pesticides, hiring workers to pick the fruit... Currently, there are about 15 tons of old green pumpkins in the people's fields that have no output.

Pumpkin growers in Thanh Lien commune are sad because cheap green pumpkins still cannot be sold. Photo: Huy Thu

Faced with the difficult situation of a “painful” pumpkin season, Mr. Thang and his wife planned that if they could not sell the pumpkins in the field, they would use a trailer to sell them at the district markets. Although it was difficult and complicated, there was no other way. Mr. Thang said that selling at the market would cost more, but he did not know when he would be able to sell all the pumpkins he had. Meanwhile, there was still a lot of work to do at home.

Tons of pumpkins have been picked and are waiting for buyers at a household in Thanh Lien commune. Photo: Huy Thu

Realizing the difficult situation of farmers, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Binh - Secretary of Thanh Lien Commune Youth Union contacted a number of places to "rescue" green squash for farmers, but the situation is still not optimistic. "I feel sorry for the people in my hometown who have difficulty growing squash, now the price of squash is as cheap as dirt but they still cannot sell. I hope that there will be some unit or group that will help people in this situation to reduce their suffering" - Mr. Binh shared.

Huy Thu