The tragicomedy of the areca market: Prices 'peak' then suddenly 'turn around'

It seemed that the "hot" products such as buffalo hooves, fresh cashew leaves, earthworms, leeches, and golden apple snails were a valuable lesson about the market, but no...

In recent days, areca nuts have suddenly become the hottest commodity in the agricultural market, bringing a dreamlike profit to areca growers when the Chinese market is in high demand. Areca nut prices have set a record for many days, holding at 90,000 VND/kg while the normal price is only 10,000 - 20,000 VND/kg.

Not only that, the price of areca nuts has maintained a high increase from the beginning of the season to the main season, creating significant attraction for the market and areca growers, solving a certain amount of local labor.

However, news in recent days shows that the areca nut purchasing price is gradually decreasing, causing many areca nut growing areas to wait and see as well as wait for traders to come and buy. Especially in the last two days, the areca nut price has decreased by about 20,000 VND/kg. Many areca nut growing areas have reported that the number of areca nut buyers is gradually decreasing, signaling a not-so-happy ending for this year's areca nut crop, especially since it is already the end of the areca nut crop. The Chinese traders who are purchasing areca nuts these days are also constantly waiting for news of purchases from companies at "home".

The recent price spike of areca nuts is explained by the fact that China's domestic areca nut supply is not enough to meet the demand for processing areca nut candy, a popular candy that helps ward off the cold.

The story of the price of areca nuts this season "peaking" and then suddenly "turning around" has shown the uncertainty and risk for many years now when although domestic areca nuts are grown in many areas, they only have one output: Chinese market. That means in this game, the Chinese market holds the handle, farmers, growers, and child-raisers in our country thought they had the upper hand but in the end they held the tongue.

The story of this year's successful areca crop is still a reminder of the sustainability of market output. Illustrative photo.

The market lesson that happened with strange products that used to attract the Chinese market such as buffalo hooves, fresh cashew leaves, earthworms, leeches, golden apple snails... the prices were sky-high before the prices plummeted, was a costly warning for being too dependent on one market. When the market suddenly "turned around", the farmers were caught off guard and could only watch with bitterness as the products they had cherished through the sun and rain became a pile of lost products, even without a place to sell in the domestic market.

Back to the story of areca nut. Areca nut is not easy to sell while it takes 3-5 years to grow and produce. Developing specialized areca nut growing areas in localities is also not very feasible because the output for areca nut can be said to be very narrow. Meanwhile, Vietnamese areca nut is not yet officially exported to China, so the waves of areca nut price fever like the recent areca nut crop are still going through the informal route. The fact that people in the regions see short-term profits from areca nut spontaneously rushing to grow has posed a difficult problem for the functional sectors in management.

Therefore, the solution to the areca tree problem must still be the problem Only by exporting officially, as has been done with other Vietnamese fruits, can we hope to calculate efficiency.

If not "small areca nut" but "the shell is like that" hidden behind that "etc.", there will be many unpredictable risks and losses, even leading to unnecessary mistakes in planning the development of growing areas.

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