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Impacts of Price Hikes on the Lives and Livelihoods of Poor People in Viet Nam Table 3.3 shows that poor households do not have much to sell and what they do sell is at a price 10-15 percent lower than non-poor households. They therefore benefit less when farm-gate prices increase. Poor households often have to sell their products to smaller traders/shops/agents at the beginning of the harvest in order to meet their immediate spending needs and can not afford to wait until prices become higher at the end of harvest time (as they need to pay back fertilizer and rice loans and do not have adequate storage or semi-processing faculties to keep the products any longer). Most of the poor rice farming households also have to sell part of their output immediately after harvest in order to purchase fertilizers, seeds and other items for the family and subsequently forced to sell their own labour, grow vegetables or raise some animals so as to survive until the next harvest. Table 3.3: Sales of Products by Households In the Last 12 Months Rice in Dien Bien Poor households Non-poor households Cassava in Quang Tri Poor household Non-poor households Percentage of paddy growing households (%) 86 96 Percentage of cassava growing households (%) 100 87 Percentage of paddy selling households (%) 71 80 Percentage of cassava selling households (%) 100 87 Average paddy sales/household over the last 12 months 847 1,964 Average (fresh) cassava sales/household over the last 12 months 9,150 9,915 Paddy sales as a percentage of total output (%) 42 41 Cassava sales as a percentage of total output (%) 100 100 Average paddy selling price (VND/kg) 4,920 5,680 Average (fresh) cassava selling price (VND/kg) 810 790 Maize in Dak Lak Percentage of maize growing households (%) Percentage of maize selling households (%) Average maize sales/household over the last 12 months (fresh grains) Maize sales as a percentage of total output (%) Average maize selling price (VND/kg, fresh grains) Poor households Non-poor households 100 84 100 84 1,569 6,693 94 99 2,130 2,280 Coffee in Dak Lak Percentage of maize growing households (%) Percentage of maize selling households (%) Average maize sales/household over the last 12 months (dried beans) Maize sales as a percentage of total output (%) Average maize selling price (VND/kg, dried beans) Poor Non-poor households households 33 71 22 71 104 582 100 100 29,800 32,600 Note: the average sales data only refer to those households that have products to sell Source: Questionnaire survey of 180 households (July-August 2008) When asked how they decide when to sell their products, none of the poor respondents in the three study sites answered that they would wait until “the price gets to a fair level”. Most said the decision was first based on when they “needed the money” and second the market price at that moment (Table 3.4). Question: “Do you wait until the price is high before selling?“ Answer: “Certainly I would like to do that. However, I need the money to pay off fertilizer and rice loans. Immediately post harvest the village head insists on us paying off fertilizer loans. If we fail to do so, the bank will charge us more. Unless the bank allows us to extend our fertilizer loans until Tet we may not be able to keep some of the crop until Tet.” (Group discussion with poor Thai men in Pa Dong village, Thanh Xuong commune, Dien Bien) 36
Impacts of Price Hikes on the Lives and Livelihoods of the Rural Poor Table 3.4: Key Selling Price Factors (%) Poor households Dien Bien Quang Tri Dak Lak Non-poor households Poor households Source: Questionnaire survey of 180 households (July-August 2008) The sale price of products is often set according to the “village norm” which is understood to be the price at which everyone else in the village will sell at the same point in time. In Dien Bien, the villagers learn about the “village norm” from their neighbors or directly from the buyers. In Dak Lak, the poor households also know how to compare prices with different sources. Certain non-poor households even refer to the daily price list provided on the provincial television channel. In Quang Tri the sale price for cassava is quoted by the processing plant (Table 3.5). Table 3.5: Main ways of learning about market prices (%) Source: Questionnaire survey of 180 households (July-August 2008) Most poor households in Dak Lak sell their products when still fresh (fresh maize grains and fresh coffee beans). A quarter of poor households interviewed sell their products to agents to pay off their fertilizer and rice loans. Because they have taken loans from these agents, they often find themselves in a weak position to negotiate the price that they want to sell. In case of an urgent need for money some poor households even sell their products before harvest at 50 percent of the expected price at harvest time. Better off households (often of Kinh ethnicity) with semi-processing facilities can keep their crops in stock until the price rises. For example, they can dry their coffee beans, stored them in agent’s warehouse and only fix the sale price when appropriate. The better-off Kinh can store their products and wait for better prices Non-poor households Poor households Non-poor households Timing of sales/when money is neÊđêd 100 54 97 100 100 72 When prices get fairly high 0 33 0 0 0 26 Others 0 13 3 0 0 2 Poor households Dien Bien Quang Tri Dak Lak Non-poor households Poor households Non-poor households Non-poor households Non-poor households Asking the buyers directly 55 23 3 0 50 24 Asking neighbours and comparing different sources 0 10 0 3 50 43 Watching TV 0 0 0 0 0 29 Quotations by local companies/plants 0 0 93 93 0 0 Others 0 8 0 0 0 4 Maize: Many Kinh people in Dong Tam hamlet (Cu Hue commune) observed that “when there are many buyers coming the prices will increase” as this means many orders are made as the trucks come to collect and transport maize to the lowland provinces. Agents will rush to buy maize from the local farmers. Often they initially pay only 3,100 VND/kg. However, if the farmers wait for only one morning the price may go up to 3,200-3,300 VND/kg as the agents are under pressure to fulfill their orders. Conversely “when there are few buyers the prices will fall” as there are no more orders. Only those agents with idle money will purchase at a lower price for speculation. Coffee: The better-off households do not sell their coffee post-harvest. They often dry the fresh beans before 37
Page 3 and 4: Preface 1 Viet Nam has made strikin
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents Executive Summary
Page 7 and 8: Executive Summary 1. Between May an
Page 9 and 10: Tóm tt budget. Women also tend to
Page 11 and 12: Tóm tt 34. A frequently asked ques
Page 13 and 14: 1. Introduction 1.1 Context Rising
Page 15 and 16: Introduction • Go Vap district (H
Page 17 and 18: 2. Overview 2.1 Inflation Rising in
Page 19 and 20: Overview Table 2.2: Percentage of N
Page 21 and 22: Overview Maize. The average output
Page 23: Overview and policies for new targe
Page 26 and 27: Impacts of Price Hikes on the Lives
Page 52 and 53: away…. we go into the forests up
Page 80 and 81: Annex: Brief description of study s
Page 82 and 83: Province/ City (Urban/rural) Distri

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