With many fruits entering harvest season, large volumes of them have been making their way to HCM City in recent weeks, dragging their prices down.
Lychee, durian and rambutan have entered their peak harvest season.
Durians costs VND50,000-VND60,000 per kilo, Hoa Loc mango type 1 costs VND80,000-VND90,000, and lychee costs VND60,000-VND80,000 if air transported and VND20,000 - VND35,000 if transported by road.
Tran Ngoc Lan, a fruit trader at Thi Nghe Market, said fruit prices have been falling relentlessly, and are now much cheaper than a few weeks ago.
Tran Duc Thinh, head of the fruit section at the Binh Dien Wholesale Market, told Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper large volumes of fruits have come to the market in recent days and so prices have fallen.
Co.opmart and Big C supermarkets are selling dragon fruit at VND23,500 per kilogramme, lychee at VND48,000, and Nam Roi grapefruit at VND39,900.
Co.opmart is offering discounts on fruits as part of its “Southern fruits week”.
Around 1,000 tonnes of speciality fruits have been brought to the Southern Fruit Festival being held at Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9, and sold at 10-15 per cent below market prices.
Ngyen Thi Minh Anh, owner of a shop selling Central Highlands fruits in Tan Binh District, said usually for Vietnamese farm produce a bumper crop means a price fall and vice versa.
This happens every year, she said.
Experts asked why localities, when farmers are unable to sell their products, call for “rescue” efforts and why this “chorus” is repeated over and over again.
The short answer to this is that farmers grow crops without any planning.
Quality improvement
At a recent meeting HCM City held in collaboration with other localities to promote consumption of farm produce, many HCM City fruit traders said farmers do not discuss directly with them how to ensure sales of their products.
Each wholesale market in HCM City can consume up to 500 tonnes of fruit a day on peak days, meaning the city is a very good market, but the most important thing is ensuring steady supply and quality, they said.
According to fruit shops, young consumers and families with high incomes are increasingly concerned about their health, and choose to buy high-quality products regardless of their prices.
A salesperson at a shop selling imported fruits on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, District 3, said imported safe cherries, melons, and avocados costing hundreds of thousands to millions of dong per kilogramme, or two or three times the price of similar local products, have lots of buyers.
With consumers increasingly focused on the safety of foods, farmers need to enhance the use of good farming practices, experts said. — VNS