Another bumper harvest in Hanoi

Another bumper harvest in Hanoi has cut vegetable prices so low that local farmers can’t sell their crops.

In a repeat of scenes from December, when an oversupply also saw farmers selling at a loss, vegetable growers in and around Hanoi are panicking at local markets after going whole days without sales.

Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of farmers at the Van Tri vegetable wholesale market were desperately trying to sell their products to take back what little part of their expenses they could. Most vegetables were selling at prices ten times lower than normal prices.

“I’ve sold only one sack of vegetables since early this morning,” said To Van Chien from Ngoc Khe Commune in Dong Anh District. “Maybe I’ll feed the pigs and fish with the other three sacks.” He earned only US$1.72 from selling that one sack.

Farmer Tran Thi Tuoi said she had earned only US$2.87 after a half day of selling vegetables at the market. “Too many farmers have harvested too many vegetables and we have to sell at low prices,” she said.

Last December, farmers in Hanoi sold at losses after a number of them rushed to plant vegetables after skyrocketing prices followed the historic October floods that killed 19.

Encouraged by seed handouts from the government, the eager farmers were left with nothing in the end.

Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development later said 11,500 hectares of vegetables had been cultivated, mostly from 70 tons of seeds supplied for free to the farmers.