HCM CITY — HCM City’s streets are filled with traders selling and renting out apricot plants one week before Tết (Lunar New Year) at the beginning of February.

They said supply is good and the plants are sold in the city but also to other places around the country.

Thousands of apricot plants have been on display on Phạm Văn Đồng Street between the Bình Triệu Crossroads and Tô Ngọc Vân Street in the city’s Thủ Đức District since January 22.

They are attracting droves of visitors, and sellers at the market said they would sell well after January 28 by when most families would have saved enough money for Tết.

Owners of apricot farms in Thủ Đức and District 12 have picked off leaves from apricot trees to make them blossom before Tết. They have to pay workers VNĐ20,000 per hour for the task.

According to Nguyễn Văn Năm, owner of a large farm in Linh Đông Ward in Thủ Đức District, there is greater supply this year compared to last. Many people are renting hundreds of hectares of land in Bình Dương and Đồng Nai to grow apricot plants, he said. Farmers have also been selling their apricot plants to central and northern localities, he added.

Apricot growers in HCM City said the unfavourable weather and high tides had impacted the crop but finally did not affect the supply of apricot blossoms.

Út Bình, a grower in District 12, said farmers have put up scaffolding and put the apricot plants on them to avoid high tides.

A 50cm plant costs VNĐ1-1.2 million in the retail market while large ones of more than 1m cost VNĐ10-20 million, traders said.

Southern apricot carried to Hà Nội

Most apricot growers in HCM City are offering plants for rent. The owner of a large farm in Thủ Đức District said high-value trees are rented, not sold.

A VNĐ200 million plant for instance would be rented out for VNĐ40 million while a VNĐ12 billion tree could fetch VNĐ120 million.

Lê Hoàng Minh, owner of a farm also in Linh Trung Ward, said demand for renting has been on the rise in the last few years.

Customers could rent a tree for VNĐ5 million instead of paying more than VNĐ20 million to buy it, he said.

The rented trees would be sent to farmers for tending once Tết is over, he said.

Minh said many people in Hà Nội have rented large apricot plants for Tết.

While small trees are transported by air, larger ones are sent by trucks and trains to Hà Nội, he added. — VNS.