Highlanders disillusioned with king of nuts

After spending big money and making efforts to take care of sachi fields, farmers in the Central Highlands are disappointed as the ‘king of nuts’ has not brought the desired profits.

Sachi was introduced to farmers as the plant that could help get rich

Nguyen Thi My in Ea Kiet commune of Cu M’gar district of Dak Lak province decided to clear five sao (1 sao = 360 square meters) of pepper to grow sachi.

Highlanders disillusioned with 'king of nuts'

“I had to travel a long distance to Buon Ho Town to buy seedlings. The seller told me that it was very easy to grow sachi. And I heard that sachi could be sold for hundreds of thousand of dong per kilogram,” My said.

After four months of cultivation, the plants begin bear fruit. My picked the fruits and the output was relatively high.

However, she quickly fell into despair because no one asked to buy her sachi nuts.

My was told to bring sachi nuts to Ea Kar district to sell. However, the expected selling price of VND25,000-35,000 per kilogram was not high enough to cover expenses on fuel and transportation. My kept the nuts in storehouses, squeezed them for oil or roasted them to treat neighborers.

Vo Van Minh in the same commune also chopped down pepper trees to grow sachi on an area of 3 sao. However, Minh now doesn’t know where to sell sachi.

“I heard that sachi could be sold for VND600,000 per kilogram, which promised the profit several times higher than pepper and coffee,” he said. “But it is not true. ”

“Luckily enough, I still maintained by coffee garden. If I had cleared the entire coffee garden, our family would be starving now,” he said.

According to Pham Cong Tri from the Central Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute, sachi is a new plant variety, which has been tested in Vietnam only for the last few years, and the studies about it have been carried out only in small scale.

Since there is no standard production process and post-harvesting processing technology, and there is no stable market, farmers face high risks when growing sachi in an unorganized way.

In Dak Lak province, sachi has been cultivated since 2017. It is mostly seen in the districts of Krong Buk, Krong Pak, Krong Nang, Ea Kar and Buon Ho Town with total area of 200 hectares. In Krong Nang and Ea Kar alone, there are 100 hectares of sachi.

The growing area has been expanded but losses are foreseeable because of the unstable market.