In Phu Hoi yellow apricot craft village, many apricot trees are worth billions of dong. Many households here changed their lives, built high-rise houses, and bought cars from hundred-year-old apricot trees.
Phu Hoi Hamlet, Vinh Thanh Commune (Cho Lach, Ben Tre) is a famous yellow apricot growing village in the West, the center of the Cai Mon flower growing region – the place with the second oldest history of growing ornamental plants in the South. Every year, the hamlet has dozens of hectares of yellow apricot trees, providing hundreds of thousands of products to the market.
Mr. Tran Van Thanh, Head of the Cai Mon Bonsai Club, said that most households in Phu Hoi hamlet have apricot gardens and earn their main income from apricot trees. Each household has from a few square meters (1000m2) to nearly a dozen square meters of land to grow apricot trees.
“Apricot growing households have at least an annual income of about 150 million VND. Most households have an income of about half a billion VND per year, and it is not uncommon for families to earn over 1 billion VND each year.
Yellow apricot is sold all year round, most bustling in the months near Tet, growers make a profit of about half the selling price. Last year my family also sold more than 1 billion VND, this year it is slower,” Mr. Thanh shared.
Mr. Thanh’s family has 6 acres of garden land to grow apricot trees. Usually he takes care of it alone, but near Tet, Mr. Thanh has to hire nearly a dozen workers to keep up with orders.
Mr. Thanh’s garden grows many types of beautiful apricot flowers such as chrysanthemum, white apricot or red apricot. Each ornamental apricot tree in the garden costs from a few million VND to several tens of million VND.
Someone paid hundreds of millions of dong for the most beautiful apricot tree in the garden, but Mr. Thanh has not sold it yet. He plans to continue taking care of it for a few more years to reach the price of about half a billion VND.
Near Mr. Thanh’s house, Mr. Le Tan Dat’s family also has 7 square meters of land to grow apricot trees. Last year his family had an income of more than 500 million VND.
“This year, sales are slow tomorrow, prices are also down, but every day we still sell from a few million to several tens of millions of dong. Hopefully closer to Tet , sales will be more expensive,” Mr. Dat shared.
According to apricot growers in Phu Hoi, apricot seedlings grown from seeds are healthy but difficult to retain the good properties of the parent tree. Therefore, most people choose to graft the embryo of a beautiful apricot tree onto the base of a young apricot tree.
Apricot roots that are about 1 year old begin to be used for grafting, at this time each product costs 100,000-200,000 VND. The finished apricot root will require decades of care and creation.
Depending on the weather, from August to October is the time for growers to prune, clear branches, and create canopy for trees. Around mid-December, gardeners will pluck the leaves so that they will bloom in time for Tet.
Depending on the time of care, uniqueness, and skill of each product, each ornamental apricot tree costs from 300,000 VND to hundreds of millions of VND. In particular, there are apricot trees that are sold for billions.
Because apricot has great value, many gardeners only need to sell a few roots to have a prosperous year. Most notably, unlike most ornamental plants, apricot is a popular ornamental plant, every home needs it, the older the root, the more valuable it is, so growers are not afraid of being single or losing money.
Mr. Tran Huu Nghi – Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cho Lach district – said that the whole district has more than 34,000 households, of which about 15,000 households participate in ornamental flower growing activities, the largest apricot area is concentrated in Vinh Thanh commune.
Each year the district brings to market about 17 million flower and ornamental plant products, of which about 6 million products are exclusively for the Tet season.
“Growing ornamental apricot trees has much higher economic efficiency than other local crops. Apricot trees are also suitable for local production conditions, so the government is paying attention to their development,” Mr. Nghi said. more.
($1=24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)