Many small traders are driving down prices, making lilies even cheaper.

These days, lily growers in the two flower villages of Tay Tuu (Bac Tu Liem) and Ha Mo (Dan Phuong) are rushing to the fields to cut and sell their flowers.

To salvage the situation, many households had to cut lilies and refrigerate them to sell during the full moon of the twelfth lunar month.

There are still more than 20 days until the Lunar New Year, but the lily fields have already begun to bloom. While cutting flowers, Ms. Thuy lamented, "This year, many flower growers have gone bankrupt because of the flowers. When we bought the seedlings, they cost 21,000 dong per plant. Now, we can't even sell them for 15,000 dong per stem."

The prolonged warm weather has caused flowers to bloom early, and even though Tet (Lunar New Year) is still several weeks away, many households have to cut their flowers and sell them to traders.

As one of the households renting land to grow the most lilies in Trung Tuu, Mr. Thang's garden is among the households suffering heavy losses here. With over 3 acres of lilies, Mr. Thang is having to mobilize manpower to harvest and sell the flowers 15-20 days earlier than planned. The cost of seedlings is up to 20,000 VND/plant, plus the cost of fertilizer, pesticides, shelters, and labor... the total investment amounts to around 2 billion VND. Now, having to harvest and sell more than 50% of the early-blooming lilies at 5,000 to 7,000 VND/stem, his family is losing around 1 billion VND.

The price of each lily stem has decreased by 6-7 times compared to last year. Stems with 3 or 4 buds cost only 50,000 to 80,000 VND per bundle of 10 stems for yellow lilies. Red lilies range from 15,000 to 18,000 VND per stem with 5 buds; 20,000 VND per stem with 7 buds. Red lilies are sold at a higher price because of their higher cost and the greater care required compared to yellow lilies.

Explaining why lily prices are so low, local growers say that this year's weather has been erratic, with warm sunshine throughout and no winter. Lilies typically take about 100-120 days to grow and harvest, but the weather has caused them to bloom 20 days earlier.

Not to mention that this isn't the peak shopping season for everyone, so flower prices are even lower. Most customers are small traders and flower shop owners. Taking advantage of this, they haggle and pressure prices, causing flower prices to be unstable and change daily.

Ms. Hoai Thuong, a customer buying flowers at Ms. Thuy's garden, said: "I've surveyed flower prices from many garden owners here, and each one has a different price. I'll order flowers from the garden with the lowest price, importing them from now until Tet (Lunar New Year). Customers like to choose lily branches with many buds, as they symbolize togetherness and prosperity."

At this rate, by the Lunar New Year of 2016, lilies will be scarce in the Tet flower market, and prices will certainly be high. Ms. Thu, the owner of a flower garden, optimistically stated, "Currently, many households have already cut all their flowers to sell, so it's normal for prices to increase to 1 million VND per bunch of 10 stems by Tet. The only fear this Tet is not having enough flowers to sell."

According to Infonet