Heavy losses due to mass chrysanthemum cultivation.

Tay Tuu is a village known for growing chrysanthemums.Chrysanthemums are famous in the capital. This year, the weather has been favorable, sunny and warm, leading to expectations of a bountiful harvest. However, unexpectedly, the price of chrysanthemums has plummeted, and few people are buying them, forcing farmers to uproot large quantities.

Chrysanthemums are being cut down en masse in the fields.

No buyers

According to local residents, last year at this time, many traders came to buy chrysanthemums in large quantities and at high prices, but this year, the flowers have almost all bloomed yet there are still no buyers. Many people are trying to sell them door-to-door on bicycles, hoping to salvage something, but even at unprecedentedly low prices, a single chrysanthemum costing only 300 dong, they still can't sell them. Many households have resorted to uprooting or hiring machines to cut and discard the flowers along the roadsides to make room for planting other crops.

Last year, the flower growers here had a bumper crop, as many traders unexpectedly bought large quantities of flowers at high prices, up to 60,000-70,000 VND per bunch (about 15 flowers). Even the flowers that hadn't bloomed or had withered were bought up by traders. Many flower growers prospered as a result. Therefore, this year many people have not hesitated to rent land, expand their acreage, or switch to growing chrysanthemums.

Mr. Vu Dinh Phuong, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Tay Tuu Ward, said: the number of flower growers here has increased from 2,000 to 2,500 households, so the area planted with chrysanthemums has tripled. In neighboring provinces of Hanoi, knowing that flowers fetched good prices last year, they also rushed to plant chrysanthemums. However, domestic purchasing power is limited, so they cannot sell much. Therefore, the losses are even more severe. It is estimated that the entire Tay Tuu Ward suffered losses of more than 5 billion VND (each household lost an average of 15-30 million VND). Many people had to swallow their bitterness, tears and laughter, as they lost their entire flower gardens after 4 months of care.

Was it due to being cheated by traders?

Speaking to Thanh Nien newspaper, many residents of Tay Tuu ward still couldn't hide their frustration, asserting that it was all due to traders "playing tricks." Nguyen Van Phuong, the owner of a flower garden in Tay Tuu ward, said: "Last year, traders bought a lot of flowers. After buying them, they even said they would plant more and come back to buy more next year, so we believed them. Who would have thought it would turn out like this!"

Inflating prices only to suddenly drop them or disappearing without buying is a common tactic used by traders to cheat Vietnamese farmers. Chrysanthemums are just one of the products affected by these schemes. Currently, thousands of households here are drowning in debt, unable to sell their flowers while most are still in debt for seedlings.

Explaining this situation, Mr. Vu Dinh Phuong said: "For 'unusual' goods where traders have been playing tricks beforehand, we can recognize them because we already have the information. But with flowers, we didn't think about or anticipate this, so we ended up in this situation. Moreover, the flower market is constantly fluctuating, so losses are unavoidable."

Mr. Phuong added that the local authorities had previously warned people not to plant too many flowers to avoid losses. However, people were still eager to do so. Currently, the Party Committee of Tay Tuu Ward has directed the people to quickly remedy the damage, uproot chrysanthemum gardens that are ready for harvest but cannot be sold, and convert the land to other crops.

According to Thanhnien