Farmers in Vietnam’s main pomelo growing area, the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre, are earning no profits from the fruit since prices have fallen sharply over the last two years. Traders have been paying farmers VND15,000-21,000 (US$0.64-0.89) per kilogram during the period, down from VND40,000-50,000 in previous years. Earlier this month a farmer in the province’s Chau Thanh District harvested over seven tons of pomelo from his four-hectare orchard and sold them for VND21,000 per kilogram. He explained that his family tended the orchard and did not hire labor, so his orchard made a small profit. However, other farmers barely broke even amid the weak demand, high prices of fertilizers and pesticides and expensive labor.
Due to the low prices of pomelo and worsening salinity in rivers in recent years in Ben Tre, many farmers are growing pomelo along with other kinds of fruit trees, with some even switching entirely to others such as coconut, which is more adaptable to drought and salinity.
[ VND100 = €0.0040 ]
