Southeastern region - paradise of tropical fruits

Vietnam’s Southeastern region consisting of HCM City and five provinces – Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai and Tay Ninh is also home to many tropical fruits.

In Long Khánh City of Dong Nai Province, people can find almost all kinds of tropical fruits like those in Mekong Delta region, for examples, durian, rambutans, mangosteen, langsat, jack fruit, mango, banana and guava.

While in Mekong Delta region the fruits are available around the year, orchards in the Southeastern region produce fruits only in the rainy season from May to November.

In 2016, The National Office of Intellectual Property granted protection under geographical indication for Long Khánh rambutan, which is grown in the Southeastern province of Đồng Nai.

The designation was given to nhãn and tróc rambutan grown, preserved and packaged in Long Khánh Town, Xuân Lộc, Thống Nhất and Cẩm Mỹ districts.

Nhãn rambutans, which are smaller than other varieties, are considered to have the best taste among rambutan varieties. 

Tróc rambutan has a red or dark red peel, long hairs and a sweet taste. The flesh does not stick tightly to the seed and can be peeled easily.

Geography, climate and soil have created the specific quality of Long Khánh rambutan compared to rambutan grown in other areas.

In Long Khanh, each banana farm could spread over an area of hundreds of hectare, providing stable supply for local markets, supermarkets and export. Some companies specialising in exporting banana in the region can gain a profit of over VND 300 million per hectare.

Also in Dong Nai Province, Tan Trieu grapefruit is famous for its tasty flavour as grapefruit is grown in the area with rich alluvium constituted by Dong Nai river.

There is a variety of grapefruits in Tan Trieu grapefruit village such as Thanh Tra, duong la cam, xiem, oi, num and so on.

Thanh Long grapefruit is ranked the first, then Thanh Tra, Thanh Day and Oi grapefruit. There are many different scents and tastes of the Tan Trieu grapefruits. The Thanh Long has small seeds, juicy and lightly sweet taste and ivory-coloured skin. The Thanh Tra and Thanh Day are as sweet as candy. Especially, Oi has a soft scent.

Many dishes are made with grapefruits like salad, grapefruit juice, and grapefruit wine, grapefruit soup, grapefruit roll.

Particularly, grapefruit salad is famously delicious because all ingredients are home-grown, simple and easy to find.

People use Thanh grapefruit (little water, crisp, sour and slightly sweet) to make the salad. Grapefruits mixed with shrimp caught from Dong Nai river, herbs, ground peanuts, pork meat, carrot, pepper, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, chilli.

People can enjoy the salad with young grapefruit leaves, baked girdle cakes, bringing them appetite due to light sour, sweet, spicy, and buttery tastes of all ingredients.

Meanwhile, Tây Ninh Province is famous for custard apple. In addition to local custard apple, farmers have recently grown Thai custard apple which is bigger and have fewer seeds than the local one.

A kilo of Thai custard apple is as expensive as  VND 120,00 while local custard apple is just VND40,00- 50,000 per kilo.

Custard apple is now sold at the local market or exported to Cambodia.

In the region, a jackfruit is usually over 10 kg but not sweet so, it is very cheap – about VND5,000 per kilo. Meanwhile, a kilo of Thai jackfruit is up to VND 30,000- 50,000.

Farmers in Đồng Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau now usually grow jackfruit to make dried jackfruit.