Le Van Xuan, a flower buyer in Gia Dinh Park (Go Vap District), excitedly shared that he got a good deal for two peach blossom pots at only VND1 million (US$41), which is more affordable than the price last year.
Nguyen Lan, a flower shop owner hiring a booth in Gia Dinh Park, informed that she herself had visited flower farms in the provinces of Hung Yen, Thai Binh to select each peach blossom pot to sell in HCMC. The weather this year is quite warm in this city, so most flowers bloom earlier than expected. The prices of her flowers range from VND1-4 million ($41-164), and the profit is not really high.
Another flower shop owner on Truong Chinh Street (Tan Binh Street) Nguyen Phuong is displaying 300 pots of chrysanthemum and 100 pots of yellow apricot blossom along with other popular flowers like cockscomb flowers, chrysanthemum morifolium. Their prices this year see a drop of 10-20 percent as opposed to those of last year, ranging from VND800,000 – 2.3 million ($33-94) per pot. He only takes a moderate quantity of pots this year with reasonable prices for faster transactions to come back home earlier.
This year, the HCMC Department of Tourism is working with the People’s Committee of District 8 to support flower sellers in the case that there are still unsold pots on the last day of the lunar year. This has greatly warmed the heart of the sellers here.
Remarkably, ornamental flowers this year are also sold only, with various discounts to promote purchasing power. Tran Thanh Quan, a flower shop owner on To Ky Street in District 12 said that thanks to many live-streaming sessions on Zalo and Facebook, the sales of his shop are higher. He expected that about 500 pots of yellow apricot blossom and 200 pots of peach blossom will be sold out by the end of the lunar year. He offers free shipping within 5km and 10km of the shop for bills of VND2 million ($82) and VND5 million and above ($205) respectively. High-value bills also receive a free pot of yellow apricot blossom.
The shipping price at this time is about VND200,000-400,000 a turn ($8-16) for a distance of 8km due to high fuel price and traffic congestion.
