Getting ready: Flowers for Tet festival are available on Thanh Thai Street in HCM City.( Source: tuoitre.vn) HCM City (VNA) - As Tet (Lunar New Year) holidayapproaches, spaces for lease to sell ornamental flowers, fruit trees and othergoods in supermarkets, markets and along roads is “hot” across the country.
As usual, many types of ornamental flowers are being sold at flower shops. Buttraders and gardeners have also rushed to find a place to sell peach blossomsand miniature orange citrus trees ahead of Tet.
Nguyen Ngoc Phuong, owner of Phuong Binh apricot blossom garden in HCM City’sThu Duc district, said he had to spend nearly a month and around 300million VND (13,300 USD) to rent space for selling apricot blossoms, TuoiTre (Youth) newspaper reported.
Three lots of land on Pham Van Dong Road cost 150 million VND (6,660 USD), hesaid. According to Phuong, three years ago, a lease in the area was only 10-15million VND per plot. But since many roads have been closed for selling goods,the price of rent has jumped constantly, causing difficulty for gardeners, hesaid.
Nguyen Truong Ky, a gardener in Linh Dong ward, said that every year he rentedmany places in the city to sell apricot blossoms, but this year many places andpavements along city roads were prohibited from selling.
“I am not satisfied with the lot of land that I rent already, but I have nochoice because the good locations are full,” Ky said.
According to a plan promulgated by HCM City People’s Committee, flower marketsfor Tet will be held at 130 localities. However, flower markets arenot allowed to gather near areas that are at risk of causing traffic jams,creating extra difficulties for sellers.
Hoang Quan, an apricot-blossoms seller in Thu Duc district said that he had toregister with organizers for several weeks to get a place in District 10 tosell flowers.
According to him, the price of blossoms this year is likely to increaseslightly due to the high rentals.
Some places used for selling flowers ahead of Tet every year have now beenrelocated at the back of high-rise buildings.
Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of District 2 Huynh Thanh Khiet, saidthat this year, the local flower market for Tet would be moved to theland used to build a cultural centre in An Phu ward.
To get a good place to sell flowers in the city centre, many sellers have hadto pay tens of millions dong, double the prices regulated by theState, the newspaper reported.
Many businesses also took advantage of social networking and online sales tosell their products. However, they also had to spend a lot of money to pushadvertising on social networks.
Huynh Kim Nga, Director of KN Food Company, said he had registered to sellproducts on three different e-commerce websites along with posting theirproducts on the company’s Facebook.
The demand of leasing space in trade centres and supermarkets is also on therise.
More than a month ago, many retailers signed contracts with trade centres torent space for selling goods before Tet.
A director of a company specialising in selling bonsai said that he had tochoose a supermarket in the suburbs to rent a space to sell their productsbecause all trade centres and supermarkets in the centre were full.
Nguyen Dinh Nam, Director of the HCM City branch of Hoang Phu Cashew Nut Company,said that the demand for Tet could increase by 20 to 30 times.However, the price for land lease in supermarkets was too high, so he had tochoose the other way.
Heads of supermarkets and trade centres are also tired. The amount of goodsfor Tet increases by at least 20 – 25 percent, so retailers also needmore space. They have to rent more warehouses to store goods.
If consumption is slower than expected, supermarket warehouses would beoverloaded, a supermarket manager said.-VNA
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