From the price of 220,000 VND / kg to 46-48,000 VND / kg, the land of billionaire pepper now becomes a burden. Many billionaires in the “capital” of Gia Lai pepper racing in the whirlwind of “black gold” have momentarily turned into a “bad debt” …
Borrowing billions, the debt does not know when to pay
In order to invest in pepper, thousands of people in Gia Lai province have come to banks to get procedures to borrow capital to develop this variety when pepper prices are rising. Borrowing from banks, investing hundreds of millions to billions of dong to grow pepper, many farmers now fall into the plight of debts and bank collaterals.
People here said that due to death, many debts have no money to pay the bank, people in poverty, pulled together to work away from home. The garden is deserted, and the pepper trees are bare.
Coming to Gia Lai these days of April is a harvest season but at pepper farms there are no people. There are pepper gardens dying of fire by drought and disease. When mentioning pepper in Ia Le commune, Chu Puh district, nobody mentioned Mr. Nguyen Van Khoi (50 years old). This is one of the famous pepper gardens of Chu Pus district. At one point, Mr. Khoi earned a profit of up to VND 1 billion.
Going to work abroad is not enough to pay interest
Mr. Duong Quynh (50 years old, living in Thien An village, Ia Blu commune) said: In 2013, seeing pepper for high profits, his family gathered money and borrowed VND 200 million from the bank to invest in 2 hectares of pepper. In 2017, pepper died on the right day of harvest, no clear cause died. Hugging a debt on how to pay, Quynh dived into Ho Chi Minh City to protect the money to pay the bank interest.
“I earn only 4.5 million VND a month, pay more than 1 million VND for rent, then do nothing else. Meanwhile, my family has to pay more than 4 million VND a month. After going back more than 1 year, I came back home. talk with his wife and children to discuss the business of repaying the debt. Not very far away from home, “Quynh said.
Contacting us, he recalled the heyday was over: “In 1996, my family started to breed with 300 posts. Every year when I sell pepper, I buy the land, put my head there and go down to the pepper there. By 2014, when pepper was priced, my house owned a pepper garden of over 10,000 posts. In two consecutive years from 2014 to 2015, the price of pepper was soaring, my family earned more than 2 billion dong ”.
On the face of the old man momentarily deep down. “In 2016, pepper garden suddenly fell sick more than 2/3 garden. The number of original pepper remains in a state of disorientation. The rich garden of pepper is now only over 1,000 roots. ”
Years ago, this April hired dozens of people from many places to stay for a whole month to harvest. Every fall about a ton, rent a truck carrying bags and bags. Now the remaining pepper is only nearly 7 quintal. Subtracting expenses, my labor was more than 4 quintals. Multiplied by the current price my family earned only over 17 million.
Meanwhile, from the debt of nearly 2 billion dong, Mr. Khoi's family bears over 180 million bank interest each year. “Every morning waking up takes 500 thousand interest. Now I don't know where to find interest payments, let alone the principal, ”Mr. Khoi pityed.
Not far from Khoi's house is the superficial house of Mr. Pham Hong Son (71 years old, living in Thien An village, Ia Blu commune). At the time of pepper harvest, Mr. Son and his family earned billions of dong when planting more than 6,000 posts. Profiting, he bought houses, bought many expensive items. However, it is hard to guess the “suspicious word”. In 2016, his family's pepper garden became so white that there was not even one tree left. ”
Seeing that the pepper garden was suddenly wiped out, Mr. Son spent all his capital, borrowed another 1.5 billion dong, determined to rebuild the pepper garden of more than 5,000 posts. However, the pepper trees once again fell down.
Taking us to visit the “target graveyard” of his family, Mr. Son removed each branch dry and sad. “When the second death died, my family held a debt of 1.5 billion dong. Every 3 months, pay 40 million dong in interest. Now I am too old to know what to do to pay off these debts, ”Mr. Son lamented.
In Ia Blư commune, if anyone does not have a red book, does not mortgage the land, the house is debt free. The remaining 90% of the population is a debtor of the bank. People at least 200 million, many sizes of 2 billion. Now the young, agile labor force has left Saigon and Hanoi as workers. Old people, children can not do anything new to stick to that, ”Mr. Son said.
Mr. Le Van Tuc, head of Phu Binh village, Ia Le commune, Chu Puh district was sad when he met reporters asking about pepper: “The whole village has more than 300ha of pepper nearly dead 90%, the rest lives wavering to die. . The whole village has only about 10 households who do not borrow from banks. 187 households borrowed more than VND 85 billion. Now there are many 2-3-storey houses that look so beautiful but are actually “plugged” banks. Many households cannot afford to pay interest. Her life is very difficult now. Many children dropped out of school and their parents left home to do business. My own 4ha pepper nearly died, still owe the bank VND 500 million. ”
As pepper died widely, farmers could only pull back the pillars and take them home to cultivate other crops
Difficult to handle debts of pepper farmers
According to statistics, the whole Gia Lai province has over 16.5 thousand hectares of pepper. However, by early April, the province had over 5.5 thousand hectares of pepper died. In particular, prolonged rain causes root rot: 4,535.44ha; 56.65ha old; 955,362ha pests. The area of dead pepper affects 32,278 households throughout Gia Lai province. Most catastrophic is the pepper growing area of Ia Blu commune, Ia Le commune (Chu Pus district), the number of pepper died due to drought, disease to 80%.
More than 90% of households are in debt. Never before have the people here fallen into such a tragedy, everyday meals must run every day. Here most people borrow and many families cannot afford to repay.
Mr. Nguyen Duy Trung,
Head of Thuy Phu village, Ia Blu, Chu Pưh communes
Mr. Nguyen Van Cu, Director of Gia Lai State Bank, said: People in the province borrow about 2,300 billion dong to grow pepper. When pepper depreciated, many pepper growers who could not afford to pay back the debt left the locality to go to another place for business, resulting in a difficult situation to handle debts. In particular, Chu Puh district is the most failed place for planting pepper.
Also according to Mr. Cu, the people who borrowed but were unable to pay also led to black credit activities. The objects of black credit activities advertise to attract people with the name “bank maturity”. However, this form of banking system does not exist. Subjects set up the name “bank maturity” so that people come to “borrow” money to pay for the bank. “If people find this case, they should report it to the police office for settlement,” Mr. Cu recommended.
Mr. Cu suggested that in the coming time, people should return to the locality to coordinate with the bank to find an effective farming solution, economic recovery, and not to leave the property to the bank without paying interest.
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