Vietnam gearing up for upcoming lychee and longan harvests

• Fruit processing factory to be built in Hau Giang
• Vietnam spends US$5.4 million a day importing fruit pre-Tet

The conference gathered the leaders of Bac Giang, Hai Duong, Hung Yen and Son La provinces where most of northern Vietnam’s lychee and longan orchards are located.

According to the MARD, this year’s favourable weather conditions are expected to produce a bumper crop of lychees and longans, whose respective yields are estimated at 217,000 tonnes and 80,000 tonnes.

Specifically, Bac Giang and Hai Duong provinces are projected to produce 150,000 tonnes and 55,000 tonnes of lychees respectively, while the longan yield of Hung Yen province is forecast to reach 41,000 tonnes.

Bac Giang’s Deputy Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Thu Ha said the province plans to hold lychee promotion events in China’s Pingxiang in May and in her home province in June, as well as a lychee week in Hanoi.

For his part, Hai Duong’s Deputy Chairman Nguyen Anh Cuong said that the province will help local lychee farmers export their produce but called for assistance to preserve the fruit for longer since radiation costs remain high.

A lychee festival is also planned in the province in May.

According to Nguyen Hong Son, director of the MARD’s Department of Cultivation, more than half of Vietnam’s lychees and longans are consumed at home and that proportion is still increasing.

The main markets are Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, therefore, it is necessary to boost sales in these two cities by cooperating with major supermarket chains such, as Metro, Co-opMart, Hapro, BigC and VinMart.

Regarding China, one of Vietnam’s key export markets, the MARD advised local exporters to pay attention to packaging in order to meet the rules on origin.

Meanwhile MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong urged Son La province to soon complete two fruit processing plants so as to reduce the pressure on farmers to sell fresh produce during the peak harvest time.