Hanoi - Just two months ago, vegetable farmer Pham Van Chuan
was looking forward eagerly to the Vietnamese lunar New Year, or Tet,
on January 26. With prices riding high after autumn floods destroyed
much of northern Vietnam's crop, Chuan expected to make enough money
to buy new furniture for his family.
Instead, vegetable prices have plummeted, and Chuan, 53, is
struggling to support his wife and son. After deducting expenses, the
harvest from his one-acre plot some 50 kilometres south-east of
Hanoi, which he spent 3 months growing, will bring in about 400
dollars.
'Still, compared with other families, we're much better off,' said
Chuan.
Prices for Chuan's cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi have fallen
by half since the autumn. But his neighbors grow kale, which has
fallen by two-thirds.
A combination of plentiful harvests and falling international
demand, due to the global financial crisis, are adding up to a bad
Tet for Vietnam's farmers. They are short of cash at just the time of
year when Vietnamese culture demands they spend freely on gifts and
holiday feasts.
Vegetable farmers have seen their revenues fall the most, but
other farmers are having bad seasons as well.
'Tea farmers are in a very tough spot,' said Nguyen Van Thu,
deputy chairman of the Vietnam Tea Association.
Thu said early last year, a kilogramme of tea sold for 30,000 dong
(1.7 dollars). That has fallen to 23.000 dong (1.3 dollars).
'It is extremely hard to find buyers these days,' said Thu.
Vietnam's tea exports fell from 115 thousand tons in 2007 to 104
thousand tons last year.
Coffee, a mainstay of Vietnam's agricultural exports, has been
falling as well, said Doan Trieu Nhan of the Vietnam Coffee
Association.
Dinh Ha Tinh, 54, a coffee farmer in Lam Dong province in
Vietnam's central highlands, said prices had dropped from 40,000 dong
(2.3 dollars) per kilogramme in early 2008 to 23,000 dong (1.3
dollars) today.
Rice farmers have seen prices fall by over half from their highs
in May. Dairy farmers were hit by a precipitous drop in demand after
the Chinese melamine scare last fall, and are only now beginning to
recover.
In part, farmers have been victims of bad timing. Fertilizer costs
were extremely high last summer, as oil prices rose well over 100
dollars a barrel drove the price of the most common fertilizer, urea,
over 50 cents per kilogram.
Since then, oil has fallen under 40 dollars a barrel, and
fertilizer now sells for just 34 cents per kilogram. But agricultural
commodity prices are falling too, and farmers who had to shell out
high prices for fertilizer over the summer are finding it hard to
recoup expenses.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese culture demands that at Tet, families
purchase a long list of luxury goods - meat, fish, sweets, rice wine,
new clothes, traditional 'banh chung' meat cakes, and decorative
plants such as kumquat trees and blossoming peach branches. Many
families must travel long distances to visit their native villages,
particularly if their ancestors are buried there.
All of this must be done before the 23rd day of the 12th lunar
month, when, according to tradition, the Kitchen God journeys to
heaven to report to the Jade Emperor on the year's events. In
addition to putting their houses in order with gifts and
celebrations, Vietnamese try to placate the Kitchen God with
offerings, often of paper horses and carps, which they burn at altars.
This year, the Kitchen God is likely to report that things have
not gone well for Vietnam's farmers.
'I hope vegetable prices go up after Tet,' said Chuan, who has
another acre of crops ready for harvesting in mid-February. 'Maybe I
can make up some of my losses.'
USA
Your Talkback on this Story