Fruit specialties in the South-western region

New varieties of seeds put in production have brought the yield of planted forests from less than 10m3/ha/year in the period before 2000-2010 to 15-20m3/ha/year in the period 2015-2020

The Vietnam Agriculture newspaper co-ordinates with Ph.D. Nguyen Minh Chau, former Director of the Southern Horticultural Research Institute, to present fruit specialties of the south-western region.

Mangosteen

This fruit is commonly grown in districts of Cho Lach, Cau Ke, Hoc Mon, Long Khanh, Thu Dau Mot,  provinces and city of Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, and Binh Duong respectively.

It is an important exported fruit of Thailand. In Vietnam, it is not much grown because of the long-harvest and an unstable yield due to the phenomenon of loss during the yearly crop. The gardeners thus replace them with other crops.

Mangosteen is a specialty among tropical fruits. It is delicious and promising greatly for export. In the future, the fruit may become a target of widely growing and promoting export.

Aromatic Banana

This is the main export fruit of the current fruit industry. It has been exported to many countries such as Japan, South Korea and China. Thanks to the progress in post-harvest processing, Vietnamese bananas are currently sold in supermarkets such as Coop Mart, Aeon, Lotte, and Big C at prices higher than those for exports.

In supermarkets, the price of aromatic banana is between VND25,000-30,000 per kilo compared to only VND12,000-15,000 per kilo for exports.

Aromatic banana is grown in the provinces of Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, Ba Ria Vung Tau and Lam Dong. It can bring in high economic efficiency if it is sold in supermarkets in the country.

However, diseases including the Panama and Yellow Leaf are devastating the crops in eastern region while no effective cure is found yet to protect the trees.

Pineapple

In the South, Pineapple is locally called khom. It is grown in alum land in provinces of Hau Giang, Tien Giang, Long An and Kien Giang. The fruit can be frozen and preliminarily processed for export.

In particular, pineapple which is grown in Tien Giang and Hau Giang, is very well known in the South for its very good quality. Cau Duc and Ben Luc are two regions famous for growing the most delicious pineapples.

Due to its feature of being adapted to acid soil in the Mekong Delta, it is popularly grown there. In the future, it is necessary to improve the breeds and find good seedlings for expanding the plantation.

Papaya

This fruit is consumed with a huge quantity in domestic markets and is often served as a dessert in hotels or on domestic and international flights.

There are many papaya species such as those called purple papaya imported from Taiwan. Although this species has been grown for over 20 years in Vietnam, It is very delicious and sweet, and probably strong to be resistant against the disease, so it has been very popular in favor of many farmers and consumers.

Guava

There are many species of guava being grown in Vietnam including those called Taiwanese guava, queen guava, ruby guava, pearl guava, but the most expensive is the ruby guava followed by queen and Taiwanese guavas.

The ruby guava has a thick red inner pulp tasted delicious and sweet while the queen has white inner pulp tasted crunchy and sweet. The Taiwanese guava is also delicious, sweet and crunchy but has more inner seeds than the others above.