Nghe An traders spend hundreds of millions to buy 'black gold' on trees

Thanh Chuong black plumis a clean, fatty, and delicious fruit with a characteristic flavor that can be processed into many attractive dishes, and is a favorite specialty of many people. In recent years, the price of fresh black plum has increased continuously, ranging from 80,000 - 160,000 VND/kg. Black plum is valuable because it is clean, delicious and rare. The output of Thanh Chuong district's black plum is estimated at 300 tons/year. Thanh Chuong black plum is grown in many communes: Cat Van, Thanh Nho, Thanh Huong, Hanh Lam, Thanh Hoa...

Every year, in early summer, when the canarium flowers and bears fruit, canarium traders spread out to localities inside and outside the district, looking for houses with canarium to buy. This year's canarium season, Ms. Pham Thi Phuong in Nho Lien hamlet, Thanh Nho commune (Thanh Chuong) spent nearly half a billion VND to buy canarium flowers.

Accordingly, from the beginning of February, when the canarium trees just bloomed, Ms. Phuong traveled around the communes.Thanh Nho, Thanh Hoa, Cat Van, went to the canarium gardens to order. After "admiring" the canarium trees, checking the number of flowers, the age of the trees, they decided to "pay" to buy the whole canarium tree before it bore fruit.

“The price depends on the tree, its age, and the expected yield of canarium fruit. Some trees cost only a few hundred to 1 million VND, but some can cost up to 15-20 million VND. The profit or loss of this canarium business depends largely on luck and a little experience,” said Ms. Phuong.

The luck here is when buying canarium in bloom, sometimes the flowers are abundant but the fruit is few, or sometimes the young fruit hangs on the tree but unfortunately the weather is not favorable, just a storm, the canarium branches break, the fruit falls, then it is considered a loss. On the contrary, if the year canarium has a good harvest, the price is good, then there is profit, even a big profit.

“In 2021, I spent 600 million VND, the canarium fruit had a good harvest, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I could not sell it, the price dropped miserably, so I lost hundreds of millions of VND. In 2022, I spent nearly 500 million VND to buy canarium fruit when it was in bloom, the canarium fruit had a good harvest, the price was good, after deducting expenses, I still made a profit of nearly 100 million VND. Like this year, I also spent nearly 500 million VND to buy canarium fruit. In early February, the canarium flowers were heavy, I thought it would be a good harvest so I ordered crows at a high price, but unexpectedly in March, there was heavy rain, all the flowers fell; then there was drought, the canarium fruit crop failed, so this canarium fruit season, I was sure to lose money, if the canarium price was high, I might break even,” Ms. Phuong shared.

Having been trading canarium for decades, Mr. Tran Thang in Thanh Lien commune said that the trade of “whole canarium” is “all or nothing”. Because buying canarium when it is in bloom or has young fruit, when harvesting and selling to agents is ripe canarium, from the time of paying until harvesting takes 5-6 months.

“During that time, traders like us also had to regularly visit the garden, check the trees to see if the rate of canarium fruit set was high, if it was broken or dropped, and if it was a good harvest or not. We spent money to buy when the trees were just blooming, so profit and loss depended on the weather. If the crop was good and the price was good, we would make a profit; if the crop was bad and the price dropped, we would lose. But in fact, we rarely lost because there was compensation. The whole garden had dozens of canarium trees, some with few fruits, some with many fruits; in bad years, the price was good, so one compensated for the other, so the loss was not significant,” said Mr. Thang.

Also according to Mr. Thang, in the past, when canarium was cheap, people bought it when it was ripe, and after buying it, they harvested it immediately in the style of "pay and take the porridge". Now canarium is expensive, many people buy it, so canarium traders have to buy young canarium, even when the tree has just bloomed with a large amount of capital, at least a few tens of millions of dong, at most a few hundred million dong, even some "canarium bosses" spend billions of dong.

When buying, the canarium tree is only flowering or has young fruit. When the canarium tree is ripe, people are hired to harvest it and sell it to the "brokers" to make a profit.

“In addition to the loss and gain that is due to the weather, there are also cases where the canarium fruit is bought, but before it is ripe, it is stolen by thieves, or the owner of the house is not good and the fruit is pruned,” said Mr. Dinh Manh, a canarium fruit trader in Hoa Son commune (Do Luong).

Plant 500Canariumsticky rice, of which 150 trees have been harvested, all are native canarium varieties, rich, fragrant, and sticky, so right from when the canarium trees first bloomed, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa's family in Hamlet 4, Hanh Lam Commune (Thanh Chuong) had many traders come to buy young canarium. However, this year, Ms. Hoa did not sell young canarium but waited for it to ripen, harvested it, and weighed it to sell to traders.

Because last year, 3 tons of ripe canarium fruit were sold at a high price, her family earned nearly 200 million VND. The year before, selling young canarium fruit, her family only earned 120 million VND. Or one year, after receiving money from the trader, some trees cost 1 million VND, some trees cost up to 20 million VND, the whole canarium garden was sold for 150 million VND, but when they harvested, they only got about 1 ton of canarium fruit, less than 100 million VND.

“Selling canarium fruit when it is in flower or young fruit depends on luck for both the buyer and seller. In a year when the canarium fruit is in season and the price is high, we accidentally sell it young at a low price and regret it later. On the contrary, in a year when the season is bad and the price is low, the amount of ripe canarium fruit sold is lower than the amount of money the traders paid, and we cannot bear it. Therefore, this year, although many traders came to see the garden and paid deposits when the canarium fruit was just in flower, we did not accept any money from anyone. We waited for the canarium fruit to ripen and then harvested and weighed it for sale,” said Ms. Hoa.