Fruit farmers face growing price dilemma

Anxiety

At the beginning of the outbreak, the control measures in Hainan were not particularly strict, so Pan thought he would be able to sell his fruit at a good price.

Later, when Hainan announced controls on the migrant population and arrivals from outside, he started getting anxious and unsettled.

"Fruit merchants couldn't get in, so I was worried about the situation. My heart was heavy and I couldn't sleep for a long time because the sales were related to my family's harvest this year," he said.

The fruit fell off the trees soon after ripening, and as time passed more and more fruit ripened and then fell, causing huge losses.

"Some local farmers have been particularly hard hit. With the mangoes ripening at the same time as the outbreak came, the trees have shed a lot of fruit. The fallen fruit can only be used to feed pigs and domestic fowls," Pan said.

Mango trees can bear fruit once or twice a year, depending on weather and technology, but farmers planting the fruit in tropical Hainan also need to consider the potential losses from typhoons.

"If I use expensive techniques to induce buds on the trees and then a typhoon comes along, all my time and money will be in vain－and there are many typhoons in Hainan," Pan said.

Wu and his friends were extremely anxious. "If we cannot sell this year's fruit, it will cause a huge loss. Maybe several million yuan. We spend so much time and effort on planting and management," he said.

Now, farmers are knocking secondary fruit off the trees to ensure the growth and quality of the crop later this year.

Wu planted fruit across 1.3 hectares, but he earned about 40,000 yuan less than last year.

Each hectare costs him 90,000 yuan to cultivate and harvest every year. To ease his anxiety, he is busy pruning his trees and waiting for them to flower next month.