Vietnam farmers lose their blooms as floods claim crops

Vietnamese farmer Do Hong Yen estimates she lost tens of thousands of dollars when her valuable peach blossom crop was swamped by muddy waters in Hanoi's worst flooding in two decades.

More than 250,000 hectares of crops, including rice, vegetables and fruit trees, have been destroyed across typhoon-hit northern Vietnam.

Some of the steepest losses in the north of Hanoi are among farmers growing peach blossom -- which can fetch up to $400 per tree ahead of Tet, Vietnam's lunar new year celebrations.

"I lost the entire season's crop," 53-year-old Yen told AFP from a patch of high ground overlooking Phu Thuong, an area home to many nurseries, gardens and farms.

"The loss may be more than $45,000," she said.

Three other peach blossom farmers said their losses would be similarly devastating after the floodwaters reached two metres (6.5 feet) earlier this week.

"This terrible typhoon and floods have cost human lives and more," Yen said.

The trees, whose flowers are a bright, beautiful pink when they blossom, thrive in relatively dry conditions and need only moderate watering.

The crop in Hanoi has been partially submerged for more than two days and even those trees expected to survive will not bloom this season.

- Food prices soar -

Typhoon Yagi made landfall along Vietnam's east coast on Saturday before sweeping through Hanoi and bringing a deluge of rain.

The storm uprooted 25,000 trees across the city, while thousands of people from communities along the Red River that flows through the capital were evacuated as floodwaters rose.

The damage became clear as the water began to recede in many areas of Hanoi on Thursday.

"My 500-square metre garden full of banana trees has been completely destroyed because of the typhoon and the floods," said farmer Tran Thi Ly.

Ly told AFP that her vegetable garden, where she grew onions, lettuce and herbs for markets in central Hanoi, had been wiped out.

"It has been decades since we experienced this, losing everything we invested in," Ly said.

A total of 1.5 million chickens and ducks and 2,500 pigs, buffalo and cows were also killed in the floods, the agriculture ministry said.

The cost of groceries has skyrocketed in the city with the loss of so many crops.

"The price of vegetables has increased by 50 percent or even doubled. Even then, we don't have much to choose from because of a shortage in supply," office worker Nguyen Thanh Hoa said.

Hanoi's trade department said they had asked major suppliers to transport more vegetables from the south to fill the gap.

"We all have to suffer the consequences of this disaster," Hoa said.