Rain leads to hike in veggie prices

Rain leads to hike in veggie prices

The prices of vegetables in southern provinces are peaking as supply dwindles because prolonged rainy weather has destroyed many crops and delayed harvesting in other.

In HCM City, prices are higher than they have been in years, according to anecdotal reports from local residents.

Pham Thi Nu, who lives in the city's District 7, said that vegetable prices had increased greatly last week.

"Prices continued to jump yesterday. After two price increases, the prices have gone up nearly 100 per cent," she said.

In other traditional retail markets in HCM City, such as districts Tan Dinh and Nguyen Van Troi, the situation was the same.

The prices of some vegetables doubled. Onions were about VND70,000 per kilo, while morning-glory leaves were VND40,000 per kilo. Spinach was about VND35,000 per kilo.

While prices at retail markets leaped, they rose at a slower rate at supermarkets, about 5-10 per cent, compared with last week.

A representative from BigC said vegetable prices had gone up.

"We've changed the price of some vegetables, with different changes on each vegetable. Price changes were due to bad weather conditions," she told Viet Nam News.

"BigC has cut the prices of other vegetables, such as cucumber and tomatoes, so that customers can have more choices."

The rainy weather was also the cause for price hikes in many vegetable hubs in HCM City, Da Lat and Tien Giang Province. Vegetable yields in those areas dropped by 70 per cent.

Tran Van Thich, owner of a co-operative in Binh Chanh District of HCM City, said he had been providing 8-10 tonnes of vegetables to the market every day. In recent days, however, the yield has been only two to three tonnes.

The Tho Viet co-operative's yield in HCM City has also fallen by more than 50 per cent because of rainy weather. The cooperative had been supplying 20 tonnes of vegetables to the market every day, but that has dropped to seven to eight tonnes, according to the co-operative's owner, Nguyen Thi Anh Ngoc. She said prices had been increased by 20 per cent.

Ngoc added that, while vegetable prices often rose every September and October due to the rainy season, she expected the season to improve in the coming weeks.

Although the situation has improved slightly in recent weeks, vegetable farmers said they needed about two or three weeks to fully recover.

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