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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
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