Especially, the types of cheap ornamental plants that cost only a few hundred thousand are being bought by consumers instead of choosing large million-dollar types like previous years.
Ms. Ngoc in Tien Giang, who sells flowers at 23 September Park, said she just imported nearly 500 baskets of Dutch chrysanthemums, daisies, and marigolds after selling out a similar quantity of goods. According to Ms. Ngoc, the reason her flowers sell fast is because they have a much lower price compared to other places, such as daisies she sells for only 230,000 VND/pair, while the market price is commonly from 300,000 – 500,000 VND/pair, marigolds she also sells cheaper than elsewhere by 40,000 VND, now only 120,000 VND/pair.
Also at 23 September Park, Ms. Quynh in Ben Tre was able to sell 5 pots of apricot at above 3 million VND/pot, while she brought up to 30 pots from her hometown. According to Ms. Quynh, her garden this year has more than 100 pots of apricot for Tet, but she only selected one beautiful apricot tree to sell as a trial, if it sells well, she will hire a truck to transport more. However, the purchasing power is still slow, while the transportation cost is very high, so she decided to sell all these apricots and return home instead of transporting more goods.
Many types of cheap Tet ornamental plants are chosen by consumers. Photo: NGUYEN HAI
At Gia Dinh Park, Mr. Tran Van Cong from Khanh Hoa brought in more than 1,000 large pots of chrysanthemums priced at a few million VND/pair, 50% cheaper than previous years but still sells slowly. Due to economic difficulties, customers mostly choose cheap flowers costing a few hundred thousand VND to decorate their homes during Tet.
While ornamental plants sell slowly, a representative from Dalat Hasfarm (the largest fresh flower supplier in the Vietnamese market) said that cut flowers such as big daisies, double lilies, and yellow lilies are being ordered by many customers. The company has prepared a 15%-20% increase in the quantity of lilies to serve the Tet market.
Imported flowers such as Ilex peaches, American plums, Ecuadorian roses, snow plums, and willow… imported from Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, and China are also being consumed well. “The prices of imported flowers are stable at a similar level to previous years, only the price of Ilex peaches has decreased slightly due to increased imports” – a representative from Dalat Hasfarm added.
To explain the price difference of fresh flowers, especially imported flowers on the current market, Dalat Hasfarm said that depending on the origin and quality of the flowers, each place will have different prices. Specifically, imported goods have grades A, B, C; goods imported from Japan and the Netherlands will have different prices and quality compared to goods imported from China. “Snow plums imported from the Netherlands and South Africa will have durable and evenly bloomed flowers with beautiful branches. Meanwhile, willows imported from China have dry branches, uneven blooming flowers and ugly branches” – the owner of a flower shop on Vo Thi Sau street, district 3, said.
