Thanh Chuong black plum crop fails, many people lose crops

For nearly a week now, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (Hoa Son commune, Do Luong) and her team of canarium pickers have been harvesting canarium in Thanh Chuong district. This year, Ms. Hoa has spent hundreds of millions of VND to buy canarium from households in Thanh Chuong since the canarium first bloomed. “I bought the whole tree when the canarium first bloomed and the fruit was young, and now that the canarium is ripe, I harvest it to supply the market. This year, the canarium crop has failed, and productivity has dropped sharply. Some trees, which last year yielded 100 kg of ripe fruit, this year, only yielded about 50-60 kg,” said Ms. Hoa.

Therefore, although the price of early season canarium fruit has increased, ranging from 110,000 VND - 140,000 VND/kg, and the harvest cannot meet the demand of customers, canarium fruit traders are still not happy. “The productivity has decreased sharply, only 50-60% of last year. Fortunately, the price of early season canarium fruit is high, so it compensates. However, it is very difficult to make a profit, if not to say a loss,” Ms. Hoa shared.

Mr. Phan Thong is a trader specializing in selling canarium in Thanh Chuong, supplying tons of canarium to the market, mainly wholesale to the northern and southern provinces. He said that the price of canarium at the beginning of the season this year is 20,000-30,000 VND/kg higher than last year. The market is also easier to consume as the provincial suppliers place quite a lot of orders.

However, this year, the canarium crop was bad, and output decreased sharply. “Most people sell canariums when they are in flower and young, so they still sell at high prices, which does not affect their income much. Only traders lose money because when they buy, the flowers are abundant, and there are many young fruits later. The unseasonal rains and storms cause the flowers to fall, the young fruits to fall, leading to not much ripe fruit left,” said Mr. Thong.

For households that do not sell young canarium fruits but wait for them to ripen and then harvest them for sale on the market, this year they also lost their harvest. Mr. Le Dinh Tuan (Hamlet 4, Hanh Lam) has 150 canarium trees for harvest. At the beginning of the season, traders came to buy the whole garden for 130 million VND, but she did not sell them but decided to wait for the canarium fruits to ripen, hire people to climb and pick them, then sell them to agents.

"This year's canarium crop is very bad. Last year, there were trees with 1.2-1.5 quintals of ripe fruit, but this year, they only yielded about 50-70kg, and some trees even yielded only 8-10kg of fruit. At the beginning of the season, when the canarium was still in flower, the young fruit was worth 130 million VND and not sold, but now, when selling ripe canarium, it only yields about 50-70 million VND," said Mr. Tuan.

Thanh Chuong black plum is mainly concentrated in communes such as Thanh Nho, Hanh Lam, Cat Van, Thanh Duc, Thanh Huong... In which, Thanh Nho area has the most, almost every household garden in Thanh Nho has a few trees, many families have up to several dozen trees. Plum in Thanh Nho is a native, perennial plum, so the plum is delicious, fragrant, and rich, favored by consumers. For many families, plum trees are the main source of income.

In Thanh Nho, there are also about 10 traders who specialize in selling canarium fruit to import to other provinces; creating jobs for many canarium climbing teams. This year, the canarium fruit crop failed, not only making the canarium fruit traders unhappy but also affecting the income of workers who "depend" on the canarium fruit trade.

Mr. Le Dinh Hung - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Thanh Nho commune said: "Thanh Nho has about 100 workers who pick canarium. The wage of canarium pickers is 500,000 - 600,000 VND/day, and that of canarium pickers is200,000 - 250,000VND/day. If the canarium fruit crop is good, with many fruits, and the harvest time is long, the canarium workers will have more income and vice versa, if the crop is bad, and the harvest time is short, the canarium workers will lose their income from the profession.

In particular, for workers whose household owners pay them on a sharing basis (for example, a tree with 100 kg of fruit, the owner gets 50 kg and the harvester gets 50%), the canarium crop fails, clearly affecting their income.