(Anova) - Houses of farmers in the Cuu Long River Delta these days are stacked from floor to ceiling with unsalable paddies. Petty merchants are idle, while rice trade companies are complaining they are incurring heavy losses due to price decreases. All seem fed up of rice at the moment.

Farmers crying

Drying paddies

“My house has become a paddy storage. I have some 10 tonnes of unsold paddies now,” Vi said.

“Paddies are now dirt-cheap. Petty merchants are purchasing paddy at VND3,700-3,800/kg only, not enough to bring profit to farmers. With this price, farmers can only get money to pay for fertiliser and cover harvesting costs."

Nguyen Thanh Phong, a farmer in Hoa Tan commune in Dong Thap province, who has 40,000 sq m of rice field, said that he has 30 tonnes of unsold paddies, including 20 tonnes of old paddies (winter-spring crop) and 13 tonnes of newly-harvested paddies.

According to Phong, good-quality long-grain paddies are selling at VND4,000-4,200/kg, at which price farmers can get the profit of VND400/kg. However, it is not easy to sell these now as petty merchants are only purchasing in small quantities. Phong related that two months ago, when the government called for the purchase of all commercial paddies from farmers, some companies offered VND4,500/kg. However, shortly thereafter, paddy prices dropped again.

In Tam Binh district in Vinh Long province, farmers are now harvesting the third crop of the year. The productivity of the third crop is not high. Huynh Van Nham, a farmer in Hoa Thanh commune, related that he is yielding 4 tonnes per hectare and production costs are high so he will not get any profit if the paddy price is no higher than VND3,600-3,700/kg.

Nham said that a lot of farmers in the locality still cannot sell their winter-spring crop paddies, some have 5-10 tonnes unsold. Another problem is that while the old paddies remain unsalable, the prices of new-crop paddies are also decreasing dramatically.

Local farmers are fed up. They cannot sell paddies to get money to pay bank debts and pay for fertiliser and agricultural materials. Meanwhile, they need money now to prepare for the next crop.

Petty merchants also exhausted

Some people may think that petty merchants and rice trade companies can freely make big money with low paddy prices and high rice prices. However, rice traders are also miserable because of price fluctuations.

Ba Tu, the owner of a rice sales agency in Cai Tac town in Chau Thanh district, Hau Giang province, said that the paddy price is now hovering around VND3,800-4,000/kg. However, as rice exports have been going slowly, rice export companies do not need large volumes of rice. As a result, petty merchants and rice trade companies which specialise in providing rice for export companies have been twiddling their thumbs.

Tu related that he has lost tens of millions of VND as he bought tens of tonnes of rice when the price was high at VND5,500-6,000/kg to store up, but the prices have been decreasing since then.

Nguyen Van Hien, the owner of Ut Hien paddy-husking workshop in Chau Thanh district in Tien Giang province, said that rice traders have never before suffered from such heavy losses as this year. In previous years, he could earn some VND100-200mil a year in profit, while he has lost VND150mil so far this year.

“Why? Because I purchased rice at high prices and sold at lower prices. I have to borrow VND500mil from banks at the interest rate of 20% per annum,” he said.

Meanwhile, food companies in the Cuu Long River Delta have also been suffering. They bought winter-spring crop paddies before at high prices, but the paddies could not be exported, and thus have turned into poor-quality old paddies unfit for export.

Nguyen Van Nhuong, Head of Thanh Phong Cooperative in Cai Rang district in Can Tho city, said that Thanh Phong and other cooperatives  in the localities are working perfunctorily. The cooperative now still has 2,000 tonnes of rice which it is daily losing more money on.

Nhuong said that if the situation does not improve, farmers, cooperatives and rice traders will all perish together.

Vinh Kim

VietNamNet Bridge