A farmer at Van Duong Flower Village, Danang City.
The apricot flower village in Hoa An Ward has become busier in recent days. Le Hai, a flower grower, said he had some hundreds of apricot flower trees. There were over 10,000 apricot flower trees in Hoa An but because of the recent severe flooding and storms, the trees were of lower quality than previous years. In addition, due to Covid-19, flower prices are predicted to be low.
The storms in October and November flooded many gardens in Nhon An Commune. Farmer Phan Ho Manh said, "After Storm Etau in November, 200 out of 400 trees bloomed too early and caused a loss of VND100m (USD4,300). We only wait for Tet for a good income but this year we'll have a huge loss."
Hundreds of other households in Nhon An are also in the same situation.
At Van Duong Village in Hoa Lien Commune, Danang City, the farmers mostly grow short-lived flowers like daisies. But after the storms and flooding, they lost all of the flowers and had to start again. Luong Thi Tuyet Mai said she was growing 700 daisy pots while this number last year was 1,000 pots.
Nguyen Huu Hung is also trying to enrich the soil to make the flowers grow faster. According to Hung, most households have planted fewer flowers for fear of low prices and poor crops. "Customers won’t spend much on flowers this year because of the economic impact of Covid-19," he said.
Phan Hien, director of Van Duong Flower and Bonsai Co-operative, said they had over 20 household members who grow mostly daisies on 3ha of land. This time last year, they already had traders coming and booking flowers. However, many people are worried as they haven't seen any traders this year.
Other famous flower villages in Binh Dinh like Vinh Liem, Binh Lam and Ha Thanh villages also planted fewer flowers as they struggled to cope with difficulties.
In Thua Thien-Hue Province, 7ha of flower gardens was almost destroyed by storms and flooding.
Nguyen Van Dan from My An Village said if there continued to be more cold spells and rains, the flowers wouldn't bloom in time. Nguyen Duy Tri from Phu Thuong Commune said he had lost a huge amount of flowers in the recent floods. His whole family is pouring all their attention into 200 daisy pots which will be sold this Tet Holiday.