On May 6, Lan, a farmer in Luc Ngan district, pointed to his vast litchi field: “Litchis are full of leaves and no fruit”.

Lan has been growing litchis since 1995. He has always had bumper crops for tens of years. With a growing area of 1.5 hectares, he collects 40 tons of litchis each year.

Lan and his family earn billions of dong each year from fresh litchi sales. In 2023, when the output was high, but prices were low, he still had revenue of VND500 million.

But the situation is different this year. Only ‘u hong’ (a variety of litchi) trees have fruits which will be harvested in 20 days with estimated output of 2 tons. Meanwhile, Thanh Ha litchi (main crop) output is predicted to be low.

Lan estimated that the litchi output this year would decrease by 38 tons compared with  last year. If so, 2024 will be a lean year, because revenue from the 2 tons of u hong litchis will be not high enough to cover expenses for fertilizer and watering.

Tran Van Hanh, a farmer in Giap Son commune, who has 1.8 hectares of litchi, anticipates an unsatisfactory output.

“The output maybe is just high enough to give relatives and friends a gift, not enough for sale,” Hanh said. “I collected 30 tons of fruit last crop."

Hanh affirmed that this is the biggest crop failure in the last three decades. The problem occurs not only with his orchard, but to all farmers. Some farming households said their output drops by 80-90 percent this year.

“It was very cold and it rained last November, the important time for flowering and fruiting, so it is foreseeable that output will be low,” he said.

The image of litchi trees laden with red fruits is not seen this year. Hanh relies on the 100 u hong litchi trees which he can sell at VND100,000 per kilogram. The output of u hong litchis is not high and petty merchants have placed orders already.

Bac Giang authorities reported that in 2023, 201,600 tons of litchis sold, including 111,200 tons for export (55.1 percent), while 90,500 tons of litchis were consumed domestically (44.9 percent).

According to director of Bac Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Van Thi, the output is just 100,000 tons this year because of unfavorable weather conditions.

Tam An