Bac Giang lychees present in 30 countries and territories

The lychee crop 2018 in Bac Giang province has ended successfully as the output reached more than 207,000 tonnes, the highest ever so far. Domestic consumption increased while export markets expanded to 30 countries and territories.

Luc Ngan lychees are displayed at Luc Ngan - Bac Giang Lychee Week in Hanoi.

Factors to success

This result was attributed to synchronous measures taken by the provincial People's Committee, authorities of localities which have large areas of lychee, and specialized agencies to direct the production from the beginning of the crop. Lychee growers were encouraged to apply safe production processes to gain high productivity and quality. As a result, many VietGAP and GlobalGAP lychee cooperatives and cooperative groups were set up on nearly 14,000ha.

Trade promotion was conducted very actively, with many new features. A conference to promote the lychee consumption in Pingxiang (China) received a warm response from the government as well as many fruit and business associations of the neighboring country. Tran Quang Tan, Director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, said: "Unlike last year, Chinese enterprises not only actively participated in the conference but also directly came to Bac Giang to sign lychee purchase contracts with local businesses". According to the report of the Department of Industry and Trade, this year’s crop, nearly 200 Chinese merchants coordinated with Vietnamese traders to set up points of lychee purchase.

This year, Bac Giang also organized an economic forum on the lychee production and consumption of lychee in combination with other key and specialty products of the province. This was the first time the province had held such a large-scale forum, with 500 participants. The event was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, leaders of ministries and central agencies, and representatives from many enterprises representing major distribution groups in the country.

Besides, the province maintained the Luc Ngan - Bac Giang Lychee Week in the capital city of Hanoi. By the end of the harvest season, Bac Giang lychees were exported to 30 countries and territories, with major markets such as China, the EU, Russia, the US, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia. Of the total export volume, 81,300 tonnes were shipped to China and about 1,000 tonnes to other markets. Domestic consumption also expanded, accounting for nearly 60 percent of production and up 10-15 percent against 2017. Large quantities of lychee were put on shelves in the supermarket chains of Coop. Mart, Big C and Hapro across the country.

Renovating production methods

Looking back to the lychee crop 2018, many people still wondered why the prices fluctuated too much, ranging from 4,000 to 40,000 VND per kg! Low-cost lychees were from growing areas in Son Dong, Luc Nam, Lang Giang and Yen The districts and part of the areas on high hills in Luc Ngan and Tan Yen districts where caring conditions were not good. Those priced from 20,000-40,000 VND per kg were grown under the VietGAP and GlobalGAP processes by cooperatives and cooperative groups. "This is a very important factor for the province to continue directing the renovation of production methods in the way of organising large-scale production under the cooperative model to apply scientific and technological processes in safe production, thus improving the quality of the lychees," said Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Duong Van Thai.

According to the Vice Chairman, the province will direct the relevant agencies and localities to review the economic development plans in association with the implementation of the scheme on agricultural restructuring, thus identifying areas for concentrated lychee cultivation and not expanding the area of this fruit tree. It will help lychee trees grow sustainably and limit pests and diseases at the end of the crop as the last season.

In order to have successful lychee crops in the coming years, authorized agencies and local authorities should also pay attention to brand name development and product packaging in association with the traceability stamps in order to meet the requirements of export markets, especially demanding ones.