Many gardeners have had their deposits waived by traders and had to sell their durian for 20,000 - 30,000 VND/kg because the percentage of unripe fruit was too high.

Garden owner sad because durian season has unripe segments

Ms. NK, owner of a durian garden with hundreds of trees in Dien Phu commune (Pleiku city, Gia Lai), said she was shocked by this year's durian crop.

Her Thai durian garden is well cared for, the fruit is big and evenly segmented. At the beginning of the season, traders put down a deposit for the whole garden at 70,000 VND/kg, making the family very excited.

However, for about a month now, the Central Highlands region has had continuous heavy rain for many days.

The durian batch that was about to be harvested had too much water, so many of the segments were very hard. Seeing this, the trader decided to cancel the deposit to avoid suffering more losses.

Contacting some other drivers, she was also forced to lower the price. Finally, the importer had to set the price at 20,000 - 30,000 VND/kg for the driver to cut and make ice cream.

To save money on fertilizer and pesticides, Ms. NK chooses beautiful, less unripe fruits to cut and sell at retail for 35,000 VND/kg.

"Never before has the price of Thai durian fallen below 30,000 VND like this year. Durian growers invest a lot in fertilizer, pesticides, and care, so selling at this price is considered a loss. But it has been raining for so long, what can we do?" - Ms. NK shared.

Meanwhile, Mr. Doan Van Dai, owner of a durian garden in Ia Kha commune (Chu Pah district, Gia Lai), said he was luckier because he cut and sold the fruit early at a price of 50,000 VND/kg.

According to him, if it does not rain for a long time, the durian fruit will not be hard, and the gardener can sell it for 80,000 VND/kg. The surrounding gardens harvested late, and now many of the fruits are hard and rotten, most of them have been abandoned by the drivers, and have to be sold at the price of floating goods or ice cream.

Begged the warehouse to buy it for me even though the price was low.

Carrying a small truckload of Thai durian to Quang Thi warehouse on Highway 14, Kon Tum province, Ms. Pham Thi Xuan Huong begged the warehouse owner to buy a few hundred kilograms. Reluctantly, because of her acquaintance, Ms. Thi agreed to buy 100 kilograms for her at 35,000 VND/kg.

This orchard owner said that unripe durian not only causes garden owners to fail, but orchards are also very likely to get "shot" if they pick it up.

"It is very difficult to check if the durian is unripe by knocking or observing the outside. The only way is to cut it open, but not all durians can be cut open.

Therefore, traders are willing to give up their stakes and accept a small loss, rather than trying to cut down the whole garden and suffer heavy losses. Warehouses only buy these fruits to make ice cream or peeled fruits, but cannot export the whole fruit of this type" - Ms. Thi shared.

According to this warehouse, the price of buying a bucket of durian with unripe segments at the garden is currently around 20,000 - 30,000 VND/kg, with some gardens with heavy unripe segments dropping to 10,000 VND/kg. However, gardens with good care, unripe fruit, and export standards still have a high price of 60,000 - 70,000 VND/kg.

Ms. Van Thi To Tam, a durian trader in Krong Pac (Dak Lak), said that in this durian capital of the Central Highlands, there has been a phenomenon of traders abandoning their stakes, and ripe durians falling in the garden because the fruit is unripe, reducing its value.