Mr. Le Tu from Hoa Phong commune, Da Nang city said that he had never seen such unsusual weather. Experience shows that torrential rains and flooding do not occur after the 23rd day of the 10th month in the lunar calendar, so it damaged all crop that locals prepared for Tet farming season.
His 1,500 square meters of vegetables for Tet sale have been totally damaged.
Mr. Tran Luong, deputy director of Tuy Loan vegetable cooperative, said that the 10 hectare cooperative has ten households planting vegetables according to organic method. The cooperative supplied the market over one ton of vegetables a day until heavy rain triggered flooding destroyed nearly 90 percent of its farming area leaving a total damage of billions of Vietnamese dong.
Despite triple or quadruple prices, there was no vegetable for sale, he said.
In Quang Nam province, large vegetable farming areas such as Hung My, Bau Tron and Tra Que were also damaged. Thang Binh district alone has seen over 400 hectares submerged under floodwater.
Walking around markets and supermarkets in Quang Nam and Da Nang, Sai Gon Giai Phong reporters found vegetable and fruit scarcity with price double or triple over normal.
Ms. Nguyen Thị Huong from Hoa Khanh industrial zone in Da Nang said that a bunch of water morning glory, sweet leaf or basella alba was priced VND5,000-7,000 before the flood, it now rockets to VND15,000-20,000. Herbs, bitter melon, gourd and pumpkin prices have also soared up.
