In these days leading up to the Tet Festival, the Hoa Cuong Wholesale Market on Le Thanh Nghi is receiving up to 800 tons of fruit and vegetables every day, a 4-fold increase compared with normal days.  As a result, the market’s porters, traders and security guards have been very busy working to ensure the smooth operation of the market.

The market has a total of over 150 porters who are responsible for loading and unloading fruit and vegetables from the vehicles transporting goods to and from the venue.  Due to the increasing volume of goods over recent days, these porters have been loading and unloading both day and night.

The deputy head of the fruit porter team, Mr Duong Tan, is a typical example.  He has worked as a porter for 25 years, including 7 years at the Hoa Cuong Wholesale Market.  He says that over recent days he has had to work from 7.00pm to 4.00am the next day, and during that time he has to unload a total of around 2.5 tons of fruit.  Despite the hard work, Mr Tan is only able to earn between 150,000 and 200,000 VND per day.

Porters unloading goods from a truck

Apart from the hard-working porters, the over 1,200 traders at the market have to open their stalls from 1.30am until noon each day to sell their products to traders from other markets across the city.  Most of them have to sacrifice their night's sleep but their earnings are also very low.

Mr Vo Thanh Lam and his wife have been selling bamboo shoots at the market for 20 years.  Every day the couple prepare over 30kg of bamboo shoots for sale to earn a living, and sometimes they are very tired due to lack of sleep.

Mr Vo Thanh Lam and his wife preparing bamboo shoots

In addition, the security guards at the market have also been very busy ensuring social order.  The deputy head of the security guard team, Mr Nguyen Truong Son, says that over recent days a total of 240 large and small trucks have been arriving at the market between 2.00am and 3.00am and his team members have to be on duty all night.

When night falls and most local residents are asleep, these hard-working people have to overcome hardships to earn a living to better their lives.