Bac Giang follows lychee production procedure for export

Together with rice cultivation for spring crop, the farmers in Luc Ngan district, Bac Giang province have recently focused on caring for the lychee orchards to ensure the standard for domestic consumption and export to demanding markets.

Truong Thi Tu in Ngot village, Hong Giang commune cleans up the orchards after pruning.

A good new came to the lychee growers this year when Japan first ever opened door to Vietnamese lychee. Right after the announcement, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the provincial People’s Committee have promptly coordinated to implement various solutions.

Currently, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and the Institute of Plant Protection (MARD) have contacted to the Japan side to update the specific standard to give proper instruction to the farmers.

With the rich experience in producing the lychee to export to the demanding markets for years, the orchard owners in Luc Ngan district are now caring for the trees to make them well developed and laden with fruits.

Particularly, the family of Truong Thi Tu in Ngoc village, Hong Giang commune grew more than 1 hectare of lychee. For recent years, she has cared for the orchards under GlobalGAP procedure. The fruits were sold at high price and brought her profit of hundreds of million VND.

Luc Ngan district is home to more than 16,000 hectares of lychee cultivation, in which over 200 hectares were provided with the code of growing area to export to high class markets, especially 50 hectare for Japan.

According to the Head of Ngot village Hoang Van Man, the farmers were provided with training courses about the safely caring techniques, record of fertilizer and plant protection product (PPP) usage.

Instead of the PPP without clear origin on the markets, the farmers used the products in line with the instruction from the competent agencies and only harvested the fruits after 15 days of using. Thus, many batches of lychee in Ngot village were exported to several markets of Australia, the US and European countries.

At Kep 1 village in Hong Giang commune, the family of Nguyen Van Quyen has become an outstanding household in developing GlobalGAP lychee in the district for years.

With proficient skills on pruning, making the canopy and caring for the lychee orchards, he has gained several bumper seasons while other families suffered the lost. Many customers prefered his fruit for it good looking and quality. Now, his family is caring for the orchard under a safety procedure to meet the export standard.

Luc Ngan district is home to more than 16,000 hectares of lychee cultivation, in which over 200 hectares were provided with the code of growing area to export to high class markets, especially 50 hectare for Japan.

The Head of the district Division of Agriculture and Rural Development Tang Van Huy said: “90 percent of the early ripen lychee are flowering, much increasing against last year. The late lychee starts flowering with positive signal for a high rate. This is a crucial stage to decide the quality of lychee flower while the number of flowers on the branches will assess the fruit bearing rate, thus the caring is very significant. Basing on the weather condition and status of lychee development, we will give proper instruction”.

The Agriculture Encouragement Staff in Hong Giang commune (right) instructs the farmer to care for the lychee at the flowering stage.

The Division also recommended the farmers to follow the technical procedure, use the PPP with herbal and biological origins on the orchards. The PPP on the prohibited list must be absolutely excluded.

According to the competent agencies, the complicated weather with hail and hoarfrost this year caused impacts on the lychee flower sprouts and development, especially the official and late ripen lychee. Therefore, the farmers should take early care to the orchards at this stage to prevent the worm and diseases.

The orchard owners and competent agencies are closely coordinated to care for the lychee at the best condition to expect for a new bumper crop ahead.