Government allows 190 Chinese traders to enter Vietnam to buy lychees

The government has given permission for 190 Chinese traders to enter Vietnam to buy lychees in the northern province of Bac Giang.

Farmers harvest lychees in Luc Ngan District, Bac Giang Province. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

They will enter through Lang Son Province, where, at the border, they have to furnish Covid-19 negative certificates issued by competent Chinese authorities.

They will be tested for the coronavirus and quarantined before they are allowed to visit lychee farms.

Bac Giang has 28,000 hectares under the fruit, and expects to harvest 180,000 tons this year, up 8 percent from 2020, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The harvest will take two months starting in May end.

The local Department of Industry and Trade estimated that if the pandemic is contained around 47 percent of the lychees harvested would be exported to China, and 2.5 percent to Japan, Australia, the E.U., and the U.S.

If the pandemic situation worsens but still remains under control, 28 percent could go to China.

To protect the lychee farming area from the pandemic, the province quarantines every individual who comes into contact with Covid-19 patients and has set up checkpoints on roads leading to the area.

Visitors have their temperature checked and have to provide medical declarations at the checkpoints, and vehicles are disinfected.