A view of Nga Nam floating market in Soc Trang Province in the Mekong Delta region. — File Photo

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The price of fruit in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta has risen recently as the impact of drought and salination has caused fruit output to decline while demand has increased.

Nguyen Van Thuc, deputy chairman of the Hoa Loc Mango Co-operative in Tien Giang Province's Cai Be District, said his co-operative was buying Hoa Loc mango at a price of VND50,000 – 60,000 (US$2.2 – 2.7) a kilo, about VND10,000 higher than the same period last year.

He said they did not have enough mangoes to export to Japan.

Similarly, the price of citrus fruits such as oranges, mandarins and grapefruit has increased significantly because of high demand and lower output.

Pham Van Lanh in Lai Vung District in Dong Thap Province said at the end of last month his orchard had two tonnes of off-season sweet mandarins and a trader offered to buy them at a price of VND28,000 a kilo.

"The price was attractive, and I agreed to sell my sweet mandarins," he said.

However, the price of sweet mandarins rose to VND30,000 a kilo and then to VND36,000 a kilo a few days later, he said.

Traders now buy sweet mandarins at VND36,000-40,000 a kilo, according to farmers.

Lam Van Kheo, who also lives in Lai Vung District, said: "Farmers who grow sweet mandarins will have high profits at the current price. However, it is the off season of sweet mandarins so the output is down. The number of households earning high profits from the high prices is not large."

Dang Van Nam, director of the Ke Thanh Nam Roi Grapefruit in Soc Trang Province's Ke Sach District, attributed the higher price of citrus fruits to the impact of drought and salination, causing a decline in yields.

It is the off season for citrus fruits, so the yield has not been large, while the current demand for domestic consumption and exports is high, he said.

Many grapefruit exports to Asia and Europe have halted because of the supply shortage, according to fruit enterprises in the delta.

The price of citrus fruits is expected to remain high in the coming months, they said.

Orchards damaged

Ongoing saltwater intrusion from rivers has affected fruit orchards in the delta's coastal areas, causing many fruit trees to have their flowers and young fruits falling.

Do Van Tai, director of the Tan Thanh Fruit Co-operative in Cau Ke District's An Phu Tan Commune in Tra Vinh Province, said that saltwater intrusion had caused fruit to fall on mangosteen trees cultivated on hundreds of hectares on Qui Islet.

As of early this month, about 80 per cent of 1,300ha of fruit orchards in An Phu Tan Commune have been affected by salination, he said.

"Besides the loss of fruits, farmers worry that their fruit trees could die in the coming time," he said.

Ongoing drought and salination have been threatening more than 6,000 ha of green peel and pink flesh grapefruit trees in Ben Tre.

Many farmers who grow green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruits have decided to pick young grapefruit and use leaves or other materials to cover the roots of grapefruit trees in order to save them from drought and salination.

In Ben Tre Province's Cho Lach District, one of the delta's largest fruit cultivation areas, many fruit orchards cannot bear fruit because of salination.

Bui Thanh Liem, head of the Cho Lach District Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau, said this was the first time the district's fruit orchards had been severely affected by salination.

The bureau has set up three places to measure the salt content in water to help farmers who grow fruits and flowers, Liem said.

Every day, about 1,000 farmers take water samples to the sites to test the salt content, he said.

Officials at the three sites also offer advice on how to protect fruit orchards, including not using water with over 0.2 per cent salt content to irrigate fruit trees, he said.

Tien Giang Province authorities have also implemented several measures, including strictly monitoring the salt content of water and informing farmers to pump water into their ponds when there is fresh water, to protect the province's more than 60,000 ha of fruits.

If fruit orchards are destroyed, it will take many years to recover them, according to Nguyen Thien Phap, head of the Tien Giang Province Irrigation Sub-department. — VNS