A farmer harvests lychees (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) –
Increasing exports helped Bac Giang, the country’s lychee farming hub, obtain
its most successful lychee crop in 2017, with the highest prices in six
decades, heard a conference on August 2 in the northern province.
According to the Bac Giang provincial People’s Committee, lychee production
brought a revenue of 5.3 trillion VND (233 million USD) to local farmers.
Lychee prices averaged 40,000-60,000 VND per kilogram this harvest season and
even touched a record high of 83,000 VND per kilogram, nearly doubling the
previous crop.
The province’s lychee export revenue totalled more than 90 million USD this
year.
The province said that lychee entered a number of new markets this year, such
as Dubai, Holland and Thailand, thanks to the enhanced promotion activities.
China remained the largest importer of Vietnamese lychee, with 28,000 tonnes,
or 76.5 percent of the total lychee export volume.
Domestic lychee sales reached 54,900 tonnes.
The province saw the best lychee crop during the past 60 years despite a drop
of 64.2 percent in output over the previous year to 91,000 tonnes due to
unfavourable weather conditions. However, this year’s lychee was of higher
quality, Duong Van Thai, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee,
said.
[First batch of Luc Ngan “thieu” lychees exported to Thailand]
The province’s statistics show that more than 1,000 farmer households earned
from 100 million VND from lychee this harvest season, including 10 households
with revenues of higher than 500 million VND and two earning more than 800
million VND.
According to Tran Quang Tuan, Director of the provincial Department of Industry
and Trade, promotion activities contributed significantly to the success of
lychee sales this year, together with efforts to improve lychee quality.
Lychee plantation area totalled 30,000 hectares in the province. Bac Giang province
is famous for thieu lychee, which grows mainly in Luc Ngan district.
Luc Ngan thieu lychee has been already granted protection certificates in six
countries – Laos, Cambodia, the Republic of Korea, China, Japan and Singapore –
by the Ministry of Science and Technology and has been registered for
industrial property protection in three countries – the US, Australia and
Malaysia.-VNA