The owners of apricot orchards in the southern provinces of Vietnam are now like cats on hot bricks as apricot flowers are blossoming three months before the Lunar New Year, which falls in late February next year.
It is estimated that half of the apricot flowers will not be marketable as they have blossomed sooner than expected. Households that grow apricots for sale are unhappy as they will not be able to sell apricots to earn money for Tet. Moreover, they fear that the early blossoming will bring bad luck in the next year.
Ben Tre province in the south, which is known as a kingdom of apricots, where many artisans live and grow apricot flowers, is also facing the same problem: 30-40 per cent of the flowers in the apricot trees there have blossomed already.
Do Van Lo, an artisan from Vinh Thanh commune in Ben Tre Province, said that the early blossoming was expected; however, he did not think that the percentage of early blossoms would be so high.
Bui Hoang Trong, plans to sell 5,000 apricot ornamental trees on the market, said that he tried to apply many measures to hold back the blossoming, but his measures proved unsuccessful.
Trong said that the main reason for the early blossoming is the abnormal weather. “We cannot do anything to make flowers blossom in time, even the experts have given up the games,” he said.
According to Bui Thanh Liem, Head of the Business Section under the Cho Lach district’s authority, there are 3,000 households growing apricots in the district which can provide nearly 1 million product units. He said the gardeners may lose several billion VND this year due to the early apricot blossoming.
Apricots are expected to be very expensive this year due to short supply.
Last year, apricot trees (around 60cm tall) were sold for about VND800,000 apiece while larger ones, around 2m tall, earned VND2 million (US$127.3).
Youth
Vietnamese
