Growing ginger to sell leaves, Nghe An farmers earn millions each month

This year, Ms. Tuyet's family planted ginger on an area of ​​450m2.² and this is the 7th year her family has grown ginger to cut the leaves and sell, instead of just taking the roots like before. "In the past few years, many traders have come to my house to buy ginger leaves, so I sell them to wholesalers to import for restaurants," said Ms. Tuyet.

Growing ginger and selling leaves to earn millions each month. Photo: Diep Phuong

According to Ms. Tuyet, in the past, growing ginger and selling the tubers had low profits, and in many years of crop failure or price drops, there was not enough capital, but since there was a source of purchasing the leaves, ginger has become a crop that brings significant income to many ginger-growing households in the locality.

Ginger is planted from the 6th lunar month, after about 2 months the leaves can be harvested. Traders usually start buying ginger leaves in the rainy season, households sell them sporadically from August until the end of the year, December and January are the peak sales times. This is also the time when the ginger plants grow, the leaves are fresh green so they can be sold for 10,000 - 15,000 VND/kg (each bundle weighs about 5 - 7 kg) depending on the quality of the leaves; with an area like Ms. Tuyet's house, the average income is 2.5 million VND/month.

Mr. Ky's family - a resident of Thanh Lam commune - planted more than 700 m²Ginger is grown regularly for its leaves. He said: From the beginning of December 2018 until now, I have had 13 million VND from selling ginger leaves. Currently, ginger root only costs 12,000 VND/kg, which means that the price of selling leaves is 3 times higher than selling roots...

Even though ginger leaves can be sold, farmers also need to consider increasing the output area for this spice to avoid stagnant output.