Vegetable growers in Da Lat staggered

Due to Covid-19, Ho Chi Minh City closed all wholesale markets leading to the stagnancy in agricultural products consumption from Da Lat, causing serious losses to farmers.

Ho Chi Minh City closed wholesale markets, causing many gardeners to grow vegetables in Lam Dong in a difficult situation. Photo: Minh Hau.

Stagnancy

As of July 9, Ho Chi Minh City implements a social distancing order according to Directive 16 to prevent Covid-19, therefore, all wholesale markets namely Binh Dien, Hoc Mon, Thu Duc among others have been forced to close. This situation has hindered the output of the agricultural products from Lam Dong supplying fo the market, causing heavy losses to farmers.

Dang Thi Oanh said that her family signed a contract to lend a 2,000-meter square garden and invested in net houses and greenhouses to produce leafy vegetables such as cabbage, spinach, quinoa among others.

During the pandemic outbreak, her family provided around 1 ton of agricultural products to her clients in some wholesale markets on Hoc Mon (Ho Chi Minh City). However, currently, the Metropolis decided to close the market, therefore, her vegetables can not be consumed.

In the same situation, the 5,000m2 Coron lettuce garden of Nguyen Thu Hang's family in Thanh Mau Street (Ward 7, Da Lat City) came to harvest but there was no output.

According to this farmer, her family contracted with a facility specializing in supplying vegetables to the Ho Chi Minh City market, but since July 9, it announced to suspend the product delivery to downtown.

Therefore, about 20 tons of commercial vegetables remained unsold. In addition, other vegetables such as quinoa and cabbage do not have a consumption market.

"Can't sell vegetables, so our crop incurs a loss of about VND50-70 million" sadly said, Nguyen Thu Hang.

Products for supermarkets soar but delivery was slow

The businesses of farmers providing vegetables for wholesale markets have been in stark contrast to the one for supermarkets, as the latter saw a soaring of orders recently. 

Le Van Ba, Director of An Phu Cooperative (Hiep An Commune, Duc Trong District, Lam Dong) said that the supply chain between the cooperative and supermarket systems in Ho Chi Minh City is still maintained regularly. The contract price did not change, but the cooperative's order volume increased by 10-20% compared to the time when the city had not implemented the distancing measures.

According to Ba, previous transport of agricultural products from Lam Dong to Ho Chi Minh City only took about 7-8 hours. However, due to the pandemic outbreaks, many health control agencies have been set up leading to the interruption in the transport circuit, prolonging the delivery time to 12-15 hours, or even more.

The slow shipping of goods, especially vegetables, has caused many consequences. In which, the quality of agricultural products was affected, the supply could not keep up with the demand, leading to market instability and high prices.

He said: "Now there are some places where vegetables can't be sold, where no one can take them but there are places where they can't buy them. Market prices also went up.”

Phan Thong, Director of Thong Phuong Company (Duc Trong district, Lam Dong), an enterprise specializing in supplying agricultural products to supermarket systems in the Ho Chi Minh City market, also said that shipping time is a concern. The application of medical declaration by local health authorities has inadvertently led to traffic jams through the station. Therefore, this business has actively worked with partners to change the schedule of trips at peak hours to off-peak hours.

In terms of producers, households in the chain linked to supermarkets have favorable output but saw a drop in prices.

Nguyen Van Thinh (living in Ward 7, Da Lat City) said that his family grows 1 ha of spinach with a total investment of nearly VND100 million. Currently, the family harvests from 500-700kg of veggies per day and supplies them to supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City. Although the trade is still smooth, the price is only VND 10,000 per kg, half of the previous price of VND 20,000 per kg.

Necessary to propose measures to facilitate products circulation

Dang Thi Oanh said that social distancing is necessary, but the authorities also need a solution to clear the path for products consumption. She said that Ho Chi Minh City authorities need to open one of the wholesale markets with special and effective health control measures.

Meanwhile, the Director of An Phu Cooperative informed that the social distancing area still has to remain, but it is necessary to have a separate route to ensure the harvest and transport of agricultural products. Trade activities between this region and the other must be opened to ensure supply and demand. For disease control checkpoints, it is necessary to have more optimal measures, giving priority to goods transporting vehicles in general and agricultural products in particular.

Nguyen Viet Cao Hung, a truck driver delivering vegetables from Da Lat to Ho Chi Minh City market, said that he had acquired a negative SARS-CoV-2 test every three days at the health station. Each time, he had to spend an amount of VND240,000-350,000.

“Sometimes when I drive from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Lat, my test certificate expired, so I had to go to the medical center to do it again. When I got the paper, the products are not collected enough or interrupted, so they have to wait for two to three days. Spending money for testing but the car can not leave, no remuneration is paid, the owner does not pay me the test fee, so it is very costly. Drivers like us all hope that the health authorities need to take other measures to support."

The supply chain of vegetables in the pandemic-hit area is still guaranteed

Don Duong district (Lam Dong) is a large vegetable, tuber, and fruit production area in Lam Dong. This locality currently records Covid-19 cases and some places have to implement social distancing according to Directive 16. The pandemic situation is stressful, but the production and consumption of agricultural products here are still guaranteed. Nguyen Thi Be, Head of Agriculture Department of Don Duong district, said that production, transportation, and other activities still keep going as usual.