Vietnamese chilli is the main crop in the spring season in many provinces. In general, Vietnamese chilli has high productivity but the price is constantly decreasing. Its price in the early crop is 8,000 VND/kg, then reduce to 4,500 VND/kg, while the price in previous years was 20,000 VND/kg.
According to a farmer, although yields this year are quite high, but at current prices, farmers do not have profit. Moreover, due to low consumption, many collecting places sometimes stop buying, farmers just pick up moderately. The price is so low that farmers are fed up with gathering. However, if not harvested, the tree will be damaged because of mature.
“We are extremely worried. Fresh chilli is ripe but its price drops constantly. The price is down day by day, 6,000 VND/kg in the morning but 5,000VND/kg in the afternoon. Sometimes, I collected chilli in full bags, the dealers stopped buying. Then, when I did other work, they told me to harvest without increasing the price. Each 360m2 of Vietnamese chilli, we lost more than 5-7 million VND,” the farmer shared.
In the hot weather of early summer days, many farmers are pulling watering the family chilli field. A farmer said: “The price of fresh chilli is constantly falling but we cannot drop. Being unable to collect by myself, I had to employ workers with 150,000 VND/person per day. Fortunately, thanks to planting quite early, I can gain money when the price of fresh chilli is high. A lot of families who planted later lost a lot. Now I wish the price of fresh chilli can increase, and I just pick up chilli moderately then dry.”
Cutting grass hurriedly for the chilli field, another farmer shared: “In the ending months of 2017, hearing the information that chilli powder poisoned, the dealers bought chilli powder at a low price. At first, we sold at 60,000 VND/kg, but after the information, the price was just 30,000 VND/kg. I heard the test was in other areas, not relating to us. We just picked up fresh chilli then brought it dry. Now, there is information that Chinese market consumes slowly so the dealers buy moderately, making the price declined markedly”.
Now there are two choices for famers, picking up ripe chilli then dried or collecting fresh one. According to a lot of farmers there, fresh chilli can be sold more easily. This year, the low price of the season caused people impassioned. In addition, the output of fresh chili export was difficult because traders sometimes stopped buying.
Along the roads, many chili traders have set up points to buy green chilli to pack. It is then taken to consumption place, and the export market is China.
According to a local dealer “Because of slow consumption in China, we do not dare buying much. Slow consumption and low price make me weigh the pros and cons. Sometimes, we cannot export, so we have to stop buying. We do not know what to do”.
The area of fresh chilli here is so large that the farmers look forward to exporting consumption. According to calculations, each kg of fresh chilli is worth at 10,000 VND, farmers can have some profits. However, at the current price, farmers gain just enough money to afford investment, seeds, and labor costs.