Nghe An traders struggle to liquidate ornamental plants after Tet

After 3 days of Tet holiday, Mr. Doan Trung Phong, owner of a peach and apricot blossom business in Vinh City, hurriedly went to the business location on Le Nin Avenue to find a way to liquidate the ornamental plants that could not be sold before Tet, which have been lying around since the beginning of the new year.

Mr. Phong sighed: Never before has the Tet ornamental plant business been as "broken" as this year. During the whole December "eating wind and sleeping dew", the family still had hundreds of apricot trees and dozens of ancient peach trees. Since the 3rd day of Tet, I have started to contact gardeners, discussing the liquidation of the remaining trees to recover some capital, and at the same time return the premises to the landlord.

Mr. Phong said that on February 1 (the 4th day of Tet), his family contacted several gardeners in Ha Tinh and Thanh Hoa to liquidate more than 100 Tet apricot trees, all for 500,000 VND, although before Tet they were sold for 2-5 million VND. Although the price was rock bottom, they had to accept it because there was no other option, now that Tet is over, people no longer have much demand for ornamental plants.

Regarding the remaining dozens of ancient peach trees, on February 2 (the 5th day of Tet), some garden owners in Yen Thanh district raised the issue of buying them back. Mr. Phong shared: These are all large peach trees, if they were sold and rented before Tet for tens of millions of dong, now they have to be liquidated for 2-5 million dong to recover capital. We are currently agreeing on the liquidation price as well as the transportation fee, trying to close the deal soon to clean up the garden.

According to the reporter's records on the 4th and 5th of Tet, on the roads in Vinh City, Dien Thanh Town, Dien Chan District, there are still dozens of peach, kumquat, and grapefruit trees... lying around because they could not be sold before Tet. Because they were imported for sale nearly a month ago, many peach trees have fully bloomed, and kumquat trees are full of fruit. Most garden owners are contacting to liquidate at low prices.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, owner of a peach blossom shop in Dien Thanh town, Dien Chau district, said: This year, peach blossoms have beautiful flowers, beautiful shapes, and late blooming buds, so it was thought that they would be popular in the market. However, people's purchasing power has dropped sharply, and most garden owners are suffering losses. My family has about 20 peach trees that cannot be sold before Tet, so my family gave some to relatives and friends, and the rest had to be returned at a low price to the garden owner in Hung Yen.

According to the traders selling Tet ornamental plants, there are currently three main ways to deal with unsold plants. The most popular solution is to sell them at extremely low prices, both selling and giving them away to those in need. The second way is to return them to ornamental plant dealers in the North and the South at half the price when the traders imported them. The last way is to liquidate them to gardeners in and outside the province... to take care of them so that the plants grow well next Tet and then sell them again.

It is known that this is the second consecutive year that the flower and ornamental plant market for Tet has fallen into a gloomy and sluggish situation. The main reason for this situation is that in 2024, the economy is difficult, people's income has decreased, and the demand for buying ornamental plants for Tet has decreased. Besides, this is a highly competitive product, the imported source of plants exceeds the demand, while the ornamental plant market in the province is also very abundant, including large peach growing areas in the province such as Minh Thanh (Yen Thanh), Nam Xuan, Nam Anh (Nam Dan), Nghi An, Nghi Lien (Vinh City), Ky Son and Que Phong stone peaches, etc.

Mr. Hoang Quan, a Tet ornamental plant trader in Vinh City, shared that after 2 years of loss-making business, we also had to recalculate our plans for the coming years. Especially, we need to carefully research the market and import a moderate amount of ornamental plants. If we cannot sell them all, it will be easier to liquidate or clean up after Tet.

In addition, due to the decline in people's income, in the coming years, we will probably prioritize importing more cheap peach and kumquat varieties with small sizes to suit the demand, because in reality, most of the unsold trees are large trees, costing tens of millions of dong...