Southern Shan farmers destroy cabbage harvest as prices fall below costs
Vegetable growers in southern Shan State say collapsing cabbage prices, higher transport costs and flood losses are forcing them to cut down harvests and shift cropping plans.
Farmers in southern Shan State in Myanmar are reporting a severe vegetable-market crisis after cabbage prices collapsed during the current harvest season. Shan Herald Agency for News said growers in Pangtara, Ywangan, Aungban and Pang Laung townships are suffering losses so deep that some have begun destroying their own crops because sales no longer cover basic production costs.
The report notes that southern Shan is one of Myanmar's main vegetable-producing regions, supplying cabbage, tomatoes, cauliflower, mustard greens and corn to markets across the country. But cabbage prices have reportedly fallen from about 3,000 kyats per head in 2025 to just 300 kyats this May. That scale of decline has badly damaged farm cash flow and wiped out margins.
One farmer from Pangtara told the outlet that 300 kyats per cabbage does not even cover the cost of fertilizer, so he is cutting plants down and turning them into compost instead. For many growers, this is no longer a question of low profitability but of being unable to recover their investment at all. The article presents the problem as a regional farm-economy shock rather than an isolated local complaint.
Transport restrictions and security checks along major trade routes are making matters worse. Farmers say long delays cause vegetables to spoil before they reach wholesale markets, which then gives buyers another reason to push prices even lower. In other words, farm incomes are being hit at the same time by market collapse and by higher non-productive costs such as transport, fuel and fertilizer.
Some growers are trying to sell limited volumes in local markets or donate vegetables to internally displaced people, but many say most of their harvest has become economically worthless. In Ywangan and Aungban, some farmers have already started clearing cabbage fields and switching to corn or peanuts in an attempt to reduce future losses. That suggests cropping patterns in the area may begin to change under financial pressure.
Weather has added another layer of damage. In Pang Laung Township, heavy rain on May 23 flooded corn, cabbage and tomato fields. Residents told SHAN that even the cabbage that survived the flood has little or no market value, and that many farmers are exhausted and worried about how they will finance the next season. The report ties the crisis to a combination of political instability, tighter security on transport routes, rising fuel prices and increasingly unpredictable weather.