Farmers in Da Lat busy preparing for Tet holiday

As Tet holiday (the Lunar New Year) is approaching, vegetable and flower farmers in the central highlands town of Da Lat are lately seen to be busy taking care of their products in gardens.

Meanwhile farmers in other provinces are in despair because terrible weather hit vegetable and flower harvest, their peers in Da Lat are busy growing and harvesting veggies and flower for Tet holiday market.

This year, farmers in Da Lat and its neighboring areas are growing different kinds of flowers in 3,100 hectare, an increase of 150 hectare compared to 2017. Favorite flowers on Tet holiday like daisy, canartion, roses, gerbera are grown mostly.

According to the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection in the central highlands province of Lam Dong in 2017, importers bought seeds of lily flower from foreign countries to plant in 147 hectare in localities.

Since the middle of September of the lunar calendar, farmers in Da Lat and neighboring areas such as Duc Trong, Lac Duong, Don Duong have started to sow lily flower for Tet holiday market.

In addition to 150 hectare of growing Gladioli in neighboring areas, farmers in Hiep An commune in Duc Trong District reserve 350 hectare for planting Gladioli; this year, over 100 million Gladioli flower branches will be for sales in markets on the special holiday.

Companies said that this year, consumption of potted flower is expected to go up. Deputy Head of Dalat Hasfarm Nguyen Van Bao said since the beginning of 2017, the company has cultivated potted flowers with 60 different colors for market in the special occasion.

The Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection in Lam Dogn Province predicted terrible weather resulted in poor harvest and high price of flower and veggies.

For years, Da Lat has supplied hundred tons of high quality vegetables. Director of GAP Dalat Company Le Van Cuong said per month, the company supplies around 100 tons of produces averagely with 32 verious kinds of vegetables for retailers; however, the company and farmers will increase 15 percent of all produces at fix price.

Giant cooperatives in Da Lat namely Anh Dao, Tan Tien and Xuan Huong plans to surge 10-30 percent of produce supply in the country’s holiday. Head of the Crop Production and Plant Protection Department Nguyen Van Danh said farmers plant vegetables in 21,530 hectare this year, a year-on-year soar of 659 hectare expecting to harvest 715,000 tons of vegetables.

At present, thanks to favorable weather, farmers and cooperative members take heeds to adopt high-technology in growing produce; therefore, good vegetables output is expected more than the same period to satisfy consumers’ demand.