Tamarillo tomato is going through a slump

In the beginning of last year, farmers of Lam Dong province looked for tamarillo tomato. At that time, the price reached VND 100,000-150,000 per small tree and VND 1 million per kilogram of fruits. However, merchants stopped collecting and buying this kind of tomato in this year.

In addition, the origin of tamarillo tomatoes is from South America.  It was imported into Vietnam by way of exchange of seeds.  Thanks to the participation of enterprises, tamarillo tomato has been cultivated in Lam Dong since early 2017. Until now, the area of tamarillo tomato cultivation has reached more than 30 hectares in Lam Dong province.

Tamarillo tomato from Vietnam

According to an official of Lam Dong province, tamarillo tomatoes generated high economic value for farmers. In June 2017, a farmer boldly sold all his dairy cows and switched to plant this kind of tomato. Moreover, another group of 3 farmers also bought 1,100 trees at price of VND 100,000 per tree. Thanks to good care, the trees grew very quickly. Then, many groups of farmers were keen to learn experience in planting tamarillo tomato from initiators.

According to other farmers, they sold 2,891 kg of tomato to an exporting company of fresh vegetables from June to October in 2018. These farmers sold more than 1 ton of tamarillo tomato at the price of VND 150,000 per kg. For the rest of 1,700 kg, the price was only VND 50,000 per kg. Furthermore, farmers tried to contact other enterprises to buy the products but there was no result.

Tamarillo tomato

Currently, the farmers are harvesting tamarillo tomatoes but they still cannot find purchasers. Another well-known company specializing in supplying vegetables and fruits also meets the same situation.

According to the calculations, farmers can harvest 20 kg of fruit per year from a mature tomato tree. With the initial price of VND 150,000 per kilogram, farmers can earn VND3 million per year from each tree.

Vietnamese source: vnexpress.net