Tết is months away, but many kumquat gardens in Hội An Tây ward are already spoken for, Tuổi Trẻ reported on October 16. The ward, formed by merging Thanh Hà, Cẩm Hà, Tân An and Cẩm An, is one of central Vietnam's best-known growing areas.
Grower Nguyễn Văn Đức told the paper he has about 1,000 plants and expects 700 to 800 to reach selling standard. Traders have ordered roughly 700 and paid 30 percent deposits. Nguyễn Văn Thanh, 49, said more than 80 percent of his roughly 500 pots are booked by traders from Quảng Trị, Gia Lai and Huế, who leave the plants with him until sale. Nguyễn Văn Long has about 400 pots, most already reserved; in past years pots sold for between 500,000 and 2 million dong each, the paper says.
Growers are now in the intensive care stage: pruning, removing poor fruit and shaping the trees. Gardens hire a few seasonal workers each, mostly local women, at about 200,000 to 250,000 dong a day, sometimes with lunch. Ward authorities told the paper that nearly 700 households grew more than 200,000 pots last season.
Why it matters
Early deals give growers some certainty, but the growers themselves name the risk: prolonged heavy rain or storms could damage the crop, forcing them to return deposits and sell what is left cheaply. The report does not give this year's expected prices.
Sources
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