VietNamNet Bridge – Woodland peach trees used to blossom this time to welcome the Lunar New Year. In the current cold spell, they seem to have overslept.

Along small roads in Sapa town, peach trees have not yet blossomed, though the lunar New Year is coming in three weeks.

The Ham Rong tourist site, which is famous for wild peach trees, looks very gloomy this year without the pink and white peach flowers.

In the past, traders were purchasing wild peach trees in Sapa this time to carry them to the delta but this year is different. At this moment, no buds have appeared on woodland peach trees yet. The price for wild peach trees is forecast to be very high this year, ranging from VND4-5 million ($200-300) a branch to VND20-30 million ($1000-1500) a tree.

Wild peach trees are expensive already and they will be more expensive because mountain people have to go into the jungle to look for trees in the cold, dig them up and carry them out of forest. The sources of wild peach trees are nearly exhausted. Meanwhile, the demand in the delta is on the rise.

Anh Le