Business is sluggish, peach and kumquat traders are 'sitting on hot coals'

According to a survey by VTC News during the weekend of February 3-4 (December 24-25), at flower and ornamental plant selling points on Nguyen Xien Street (Thanh Xuan District), Tu Hiep Market (Thanh Tri District) and Nga Tu So Flower Market (Dong Da District), the atmosphere was very gloomy.

Tet flower market in Hanoi is not as busy as every year.

Importing about 200 peach and plum branches to sell at Tu Hiep market for Tet, Mr. Nguyen Van Thang (in Thanh Tri) sighed, it was already the 24th and 25th of Tet but the number of customers coming to see and buy Tet ornamental plants each day could be counted on the fingers of one hand. In fact, a few people stopped by to see but then left empty-handed.

“I invested 140 million to buy peach and plum branches and transported them from Son La here for nearly a week, but so far, the amount of goods consumed is insignificant. After 1 week of selling, we have only earned less than 20 million VND.

“If we haven’t sold half of them by now, we’ll be considered a failure. At this rate, peach and kumquat traders are likely to suffer losses this year,” said Mr. Thang.

With no customers, Mr. Thang sat surfing social networks to relieve stress.

According to Mr. Thang, this year the prices of flowers and ornamental plants such as peach, kumquat, apricot, and orchids are 20-30% cheaper than last year. For example, a peach blossom branch about 2m high, with a lush canopy and 5 large petals costs 1.5-2 million VND/branch, a decrease of about 800 thousand to 1 million VND compared to last year's Tet holiday.

The kumquat tree is nearly 2m high, with full leaves, buds, flowers, and fruits, priced at 2.2 - 3.5 million VND/tree, down about 1 million VND compared to 2023. It is worth mentioning that although flowers and ornamental plants are quite cheap, the number of buyers has decreased by 80% compared to the same period last year.

Kumquat prices this year are about 30% cheaper than Tet 2023, but the number of buyers at this time is still very small.

Meanwhile, at a kumquat shop on Nguyen Xien street, Tran Duc Doanh's group was sitting drinking tea and scrolling through their phones, waiting for customers to come see the trees.

This year, Mr. Doanh imported about 400 kumquat trees to serve the Tet demand of people in Hanoi. However, the market is deserted, purchasing power has decreased sharply, sellers outnumber buyers, so so far he has only sold more than a dozen trees.

There were no customers, Mr. Doanh and the vendors sat drinking tea and surfing the phone.

“My brothers and I are from Nam Dinh who came here to do clothing business, but we couldn’t sell our products. To earn some extra money and ease our financial burden, we pooled together nearly 300 million to sell kumquat trees during this Tet season.

However, until today we have only sold more than 7 million VND, just enough to pay the rent for the sales space.

We still have more than 90% of our stock. Hopefully, in the remaining days, workers will receive bonuses and go shopping more during Tet holiday. Therefore, despite the cold and rainy weather, we have to stay to recoup our losses, there is no other way,” Mr. Doanh lamented.

The darker it got, the fewer customers there were.

Not only peach and kumquat traders, but also traders of other flowers and ornamental plants for Tet such as apricot, orchid, and grapefruit are also restless because the consumption quantity is insignificant.

Ms. Luu Phuong Thuy, an orchid trader at Nga Tu So market, said she has more than 10 years of experience selling orchids during the Lunar New Year, but has never seen such a slow year as this year.

The number of visitors coming to see and buy orchids is also very rare.

In previous years, on December 23, my goods sold more than 40%, but this year I sold less than 10% of the imported goods.

“This year I invested more than 120 million VND to buy orchids to sell, but the number of plants sold can be counted on the fingers of one hand. So far I have only sold about 10 million VND. The small traders at this market are also selling very slowly.

We hope that in the next one or two days, businesses and administrative agencies will pay salaries and bonuses so that people will have money to buy peach, apricot, and orchid flowers for Tet," said Ms. Thuy.

PHAM DUY

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