2019 lychee crop: Increased quality and efficiency

Lychee farmers in Bac Giang province have had a successful crop in 2019. They have overcome all disadvantages relating to weather and yield reduction to get the highest economic efficiency.

The VietGAP lychee garden of Phan Van Thai’s family in Phi village, Phi Dien commune (Luc Ngan district).

Quality compensates for output

These days, Phan Van Thai's family in Phi village, Phi Dien commune (Luc Ngan district) is harvesting the remaining area of his lychee garden. Calculating after hard working days, Thai could not hide his joy: "Nearly 30 years of growing lychee, but this crop saw the highest lychee prices so far. Although some trees have poor-quality fruits or do not yield fruits, my garden still produced about 8 tonnes. The selling price was from 45,000-55,000 VND (1.9-2.1 USD) per kg, bringing in large revenue and compensating for reduced output”.

Cao Van Hoan, Standing Vice Chairman of the Luc Ngan district People's Committee said, right from the beginning of the crop, the district has directed controlling quality, ensuring food safety and hygiene, and protecting the brand and reputation of lychee products. Advanced technical measures and producers’ multi-year experience have helped lychee have the best quality ever.

Luc Ngan district now maintains more than 15,000 hectares of lychee. Notably, the production area under VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards has constantly expanded, reaching 12,000 hectares, with a total output of nearly 77,000 tonnes. This year, for the first time, Luc Ngan has 20 ha of organic lychee, with a selling price of 200,000 VND (8.6 USD) per box of 12 fruits.

This has brought about unexpected success in this lychee crop. The production decreased compared to last year but the value of lychee and auxiliary services increased by more than 1 trillion VND (42.9 million USD). With an average selling price of 35,800 VND (1.5 USD) per kg, Luc Ngan district is estimated to earn 3.282 trillion VND (140.8 million USD) from the 2019 lychee crop.

Latest figures show that the province has harvested nearly 150,000 tonnes of lychee, lower than the previous crop, but the revenue is higher than last year. The average value is 230 million VND (9,870 USD) per ha, the highest so far.

Surveys conducted in some other localities in the province also showed a strong change in lychee quality. For example, Luc Nam district has 5,900 hectares, including 1,300 hectares under VietGAP standard. The selling price was 25,000-55,000 VND per kg for early-ripen lychee and 15,000-45,000 VND per kg for main-crop lychee.

Tan Yen district is famous for its early-ripen lychee, with an area of 1,350 hectares, of which 306 hectares are grown under VietGAP standard, an increase of 60 hectares over the previous year. The output reached over 13,000 tonnes, with the selling price ranging from 20,000 to 35,000 VND per kg, bringing a great source of income to lychee growers.

Experience for following crops

One of the factors that led to the success of this year’s lychee crop was that the provincial People's Committee directed departments, agencies and localities to actively promote trade, seek and expand the markets for lychees.

Typically, an economic forum on lychee production and consumption and promotion of the province’s cultural, tourist and agricultural products in 2019 was held in late May, along with activities to promote lychee consumption in Pingxiang (China) and Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City...

Thereby, it has created a positive effect, attracting thousands of domestic and foreign entrepreneurs and enterprises to Bac Giang to connect and buy lychees at high prices. Statistics showed that more than 500 Chinese traders came to place their lychee purchase points in Luc Ngan, Luc Nam and Tan Yen districts.

Bac Giang lychees have also appeared in many other markets through official channels such as Russia, America, Japan, the Republic of Korea, countries in the Middle East and the EU...

Nguyen Van Tho, Deputy Director of the Center for Industrial Promotion and Trade Promotion (the provincial Department of Industry and Trade), said: Besides successes in export, Bac Giang lychees have also been consumed nationwide. 

Consumers know more and more about the Bac Giang lychees through trade centers and large supermarkets such as Saigon Co.opMart, Big C, Hapro... and some wholesale markets like Thu Duc, Binh Dien, Hoc Mon (Ho Chi Minh City), and Dau Giay (Dong Nai).

Not only present in northern cities and provinces, the lychees are also consumed in the central and southern region. This is considered a valuable experience to continue in the next crops.