Traders destroy flowers just before Tet to prevent low prices
Flower traders in HCM City deliberately destroyed their flowers on February 15, the last day before the Lunar New Year, to prevent customers from making them accept low prices.
Many families often wait until the last minutes to buy flowers or kumquat trees, wanting to get the lowest prices possible since traders have to return to their hometown and return the premise to owners. Some even wait in order to pick up thrown-away flowers and trees for free.
Phong and his friends brought about 1,000 flower pots to September 23th Park but there are still hundreds of pots left when the park ordered traders to leave on February 15. He then started to break all of the pots and threw the flowers away. Some on-lookers picked up the safe pots and ran away.
Phong said he'd rather incur losses than sell the flowers at the unbearably cheap prices. "I hope in the years to come, people will buy flowers sooner and won't force traders and farmers to lower prices like this," he said.
Farmers and traders in the Mekong Delta were also willing to incur loss but in a different way. They spent money to transport the flowers back to their gardens. According to traders, forced to sell at low prices on the last day before Tet was unfair.
A trader by Ninh Kieu Quay said, "If we keep lowering the prices, people will keep waiting until the last day, the last minutes. It's not fair for us."
Many families often wait until the last minutes to buy flowers or kumquat trees, wanting to get the lowest prices possible since traders have to return to their hometown and return the premise to owners. Some even wait in order to pick up thrown-away flowers and trees for free.
Phong and his friends brought about 1,000 flower pots to September 23th Park but there are still hundreds of pots left when the park ordered traders to leave on February 15. He then started to break all of the pots and threw the flowers away. Some on-lookers picked up the safe pots and ran away.
Phong said he'd rather incur losses than sell the flowers at the unbearably cheap prices. "I hope in the years to come, people will buy flowers sooner and won't force traders and farmers to lower prices like this," he said.
Farmers and traders in the Mekong Delta were also willing to incur loss but in a different way. They spent money to transport the flowers back to their gardens. According to traders, forced to sell at low prices on the last day before Tet was unfair.
A trader by Ninh Kieu Quay said, "If we keep lowering the prices, people will keep waiting until the last day, the last minutes. It's not fair for us."
Flower markets busier in the Mekong Delta on the last day before Tet
Traders in the Mekong Delta transport the leftover flowers home
Traders in HCM City destroy the flowers
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