Farm produce prices plunge
Farm produce prices plunge
The prices of several agrofishery products, including rice, coffee, tra fish and pepper, have plunged, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The Farm Produce Processing and Market Development Department and the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development on October 1 released a report to announce the prices on the farm produce market in September, Sai Gon Giai Phong news site reported.
Accordingly, in September, the price of rice in the Mekong Delta region took a nosedive due to low export demand.
Facing the same fate, the price of coffee slumped as Brazil’s currency, the real, has weakened, forcing the country to sell large amounts of coffee after each crop. As such, coffee inventories in some major markets are on the rise.
In addition, oversupply hit the price of tra fish in the Mekong Delta region. However, in September, shrimp prices bucked the falling trend, inching up against August.
The department noted in the report that over the past nine months, the market saw the prices of agricultural products fall sharply.
In particular, the decline in rice prices was attributable to weak demand, whereas pepper prices declined sharply due to global oversupply.
The agriculture sector had earlier suffered African swine fever outbreaks, resulting in a drop in live pig prices.
Besides this, tra fish prices plunged due to weak exports to foreign markets, mainly China, since early 2019, according to the report.
Despite declines in the prices of farm produce, the revenue from agricultural product exports in September amounted to an estimated US$3.5 billion, taking the total export value during the nine-month period to over US$32 billion, up 2.7% year-on-year.
