Recently a large number of people living in distant Kon Pne Commune in the highland province of Gia Lai have been rushing to collect T’rung roots from the forest to sell to traders.
The number of so-called ‘collectors’ have been increasing rapidly on a daily basis, including school-going students, as a single person can earn hundreds of thousands of dong a day, a huge income for that part of the world.
Earlier these villages in distant Kon Pne Commune in Gia Lai Province were quiet and peaceful; but now there is hustle and bustle everywhere with adults and children making their way to the jungle.
Dinh Lieu, a local resident, said many traders had arrived in the commune in the last five months asking for T’rung roots and offering a high price. This led to many people, even school-going children, to flock to the forest to pick T’rung roots.
Fresh T’rung root fetches VND3,000-5,000 per kilogram and dry ones VND10,000-12,000 a kilogram. As a result, family members can make several hundreds of thousands or even millions of dong.
The downside is that nobody knows who the buyers are and what they plan to do with the roots. H’Luc, another local, said a short time ago a handful of strangers had come to the village to buy the root at a high price saying they wanted to make incense from it.
Vo Dinh Chinh, head forest ranger in Gia Lai Province, said on May 8 that he had asked an agency to verify whether T’rung is a precious plant, and whether it needs protection. While waiting to learn more about the plant, he and the local government are asking residents not to overexploit the plant.
A similar phenomenon occurred in the province not long before but with pepper root. The purpose in buying the leaves remains a mystery to both traders and farmers; however, it caused a lot of devastation in the forest in a short time and dried the soil.
The local government has thus asked locals not to sell the leaves anymore, as the leaves help enrich and fertilize the grounds of the plantations in the commune. Van Phu Bo from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Gia Lai said this is an unprecedented and unusual phenomenon in the locality.
Public concern has also been raised as mango, sugar-cane leaves and shoots of sugar-cane were bought at high prices in Cam Lam District in the central province of Khanh Hoa.
Purchasing of leaves began in 2009 when two companies in Ho Chi Minh City and the northern province of Hai Phong set up camp in the province to buy leaves.
Residents sold dry mango leaves for VND800 a kg. The company in Hai Phong asked the government for permission to collect dried mango leaves for raw material to grow mushrooms and needed 3-5 tons a day. Some local traders revealed that companies sold these leaves to Japan for fertilizer.
Nguyen Thi Thanh, chairwoman of the People’s Committee of Cam Lam District said local government has prohibited residents to sell dried mango leaves and will impose a fine on violators.
