Durian in season, prices down up to 50%

Surveys at orchards in Tien Giang Province and Can Tho City show that the fruit is selling for VND90,000-VND140,000 (US$3.82-$5.94) at the garden gate, down from VND170,000-VND190,000.

Hoa, the owner of 200 durian trees in Tien Giang, said she sold the fruit at prices of VND190,000 per kilogram in early February, and VND120,000-130,000 in early March.

Thanh, a durian grower in Can Tho, is selling one kilogram of durian at VND90,000, nearly half of the price she asked early last month.

Linh, a trader in Tien Giang, said durian in the Mekong Delta has just entered its season, so the output at each farm has increased to 10-20 tons, pushing the fruit’s price down.

"In February, I managed to buy only a few dozen tons of durian a week," she said. "Now I can buy 10-25 tons a day."

However, the current prices are the highest compared with the same period of previous years, durian growers said, adding that they make profits of VND0.8-1 billion from each hectare of the fruit tree.

The Tien Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said the price of durian, in season from March to May, will further decline in the near future.

The province has some 20,000 hectares of durian with an expected total output of nearly 300,000 tons.

According to the Department of Crop Production at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the volume of Vietnamese durian exported to China under the official quota accounts for 15-20% of the total output.

In the first two months of this year, as durian prices surged dramatically, many farmers in the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands region replaced their coffee, pepper, and rice fields with durian trees.

The department warned that the uncontrolled increase in durian acreage would lead to oversupply and lower prices.