Good price, bad harvest

BTO-Consecutive unseasonal rains in February in Binh Thuan caused many cashew gardens to “burn out” of cotton. At the same time, the raw cashew market was at a high price, causing cashew farmers to regret.

Cashew trees have the characteristic that when they flower and fruit, if they encounter rain or frost, the flowers will almost dry out. Farmers often call this phenomenon "flower burn". Because when the cashew flowers are burned, they cannot bear fruit. In Binh Thuan, cashews usually flower at the end of the year, from December to March of the following year. Cashews flower many times, but the first two times produce the most fruit, accounting for 60-70% of the garden's yield, while the following times are only secondary. Therefore, if in January and February, the golden period when the cashew flowers the most of the season and produce 70% of the garden's yield, but it rains, it is considered that the cashew crop failed that year.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, the province has more than 17,000 hectares of cashew, concentrated in Duc Linh, Tanh Linh, Ham Thuan Bac and Ham Tan, of which more than 15,000 hectares are in the harvest period, with an output of 10,000 tons/year. The productivity and output of cashew in Binh Thuan are still low because most of the cashew area was previously grown by seeds, without selection, and the issue of intensive investment was not in accordance with the process. To meet the export demand of this product, the province has planned to replant and improve cashew varieties on about 12,500 hectares, in order to improve productivity and quality, ensuring the requirements for cashew nut export. In the last days of February and the first days of March in the years of good cashew harvest, traders specializing in purchasing agricultural products in Ham Thuan Bac, Ham Tan, Duc Linh, Tanh Linh districts are busy collecting goods from households that grow a lot of cashews. On some roads in the districts, small traders also sit at the intersections, with scales ready, waiting for people to come back from the fields to buy cashews with "fresh money". However, this year, that bustling atmosphere is completely lacking. Although the price of cashews is at a high level, ranging from 40,000 - 45,000 VND/kg, this is a quite high price. Cashew farmers should be excited, but in reality, cashew growers are more sad than happy because many cashew gardens have burnt flowers, so the yield is only about 30 - 60%...

Mr. Nguyen Phi in Duc Thuan commune, Tanh Linh has nearly 2 hectares of cashew, but these past few days he has been running around looking for work at construction sites to earn income because his cashew garden has no income. With a sad voice, Mr. Phi said: “Last year my cashew garden yielded nearly 1.5 tons, but this year, since Tet until now, there have been 3 heavy rains, so the 2 flowering periods of the cashew garden have been burnt dry, each tree only bears a few dozen fruits, so there is no hope. Cashew prices are high, and my family has been taking care of it with fertilizer and pesticides according to the process of the Agricultural Extension Center, but unfortunately the weather is “unusual”, so looking at the cashew garden makes me feel so heartbroken that I can’t bear it…”. Phuong Nga, a raw cashew nut buyer in Tanh Linh district, said: “When the cashew nuts are burnt, the quantity of fruit set is also low in quality. The quality of the fruit set is reduced by 30-40% because the raw cashew nuts are resinous, the shell is thick but the cashew nuts are small. The purchasing and processing factories consider this type of cashew nuts as grade 2, so traders are in a “stuck” situation. If they buy at a low price, the cashew growers will be affected, but if they buy at the market price, when the factory sorts the nuts to collect the goods, they will suffer a loss. So this year, not only the cashew growers will lose their harvest, but also the traders who collect the cashew nuts are worried about losing capital, because the quality of the cashew nuts is not as good as in previous years...

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/dieu-duoc-gia-mat-mua-128256.html