Lychee of Bac Giang on the shelf at the CentralWorld shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand (Photo: VNA)
Bac Giang (VNA) – The northern province of Bac Giang earned over 6.87 trillion VND (about 286 million USD at current exchange rate) from the sale of lychee and related services in the 2023 crop, the highest ever, according to the provincial Department of Industry and Trade.
Bac Giang lychee sold well on both the domestic and foreign markets this year, with a total 201,600 tonnes sold, bringing in nearly 4.66 trillion VND.
Nearly 111,200 tonnes of lychee were shipped abroad, accounting for over 55.1% of the total sale volume, while about 90,500 tonnes were consumed domestically, or nearly 44.9%.
Lychee prices stayed rather stable throughout the crop, at an average 23,100 VND per kilo, about 2,000 VND higher than the average price in the 2022 crop.
The main export markets of Bac Giang lychee were China (accounting for over 98% of the province’s lychee export volume), the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, the EU, Thailand, the UAE, Qatar and some countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Services related to lychee harvesting and sale also earned the province around 2.218 trillion VND.
The optimistic results could be attributed to the province’s preparations since the beginning of the year. The provincial authorities studied the market, analysed statistics and situations in previous crops while making careful preparations for harvesting, transport and marketing work.
Bac Giang has directly contacted, held negotiations and signed cooperative deals with Chinese localities sharing border gates with Vietnam such as Yunnan and Guangxi, ensuring that the export of lychee was given priority to enter China.
The province also coordinated closely with ministries, central agencies, other localities and Vietnamese trade offices overseas to promote the distribution of lychee in foreign markets, and diversify distribution channels. Its policy is to maintain the market share of Vietnamese lychee in the traditional Chinese market, while striving to expand foothold in potential markets such as the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, the EU, and countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
It is noteworthy that Bac Giang has successfully diversified the modes of selling, utilising both domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms, websites of domestic supermarkets and shopping centres, and even social media networks like Tiktok, Facebook and Zalo.
The province has tried to combine lychee sale with tourism through creative measures like organising fashion shows highlighting lychee, inviting celebrities or influencers to join experiential tours in lychee growing areas and lychee marketing activities on social media netwworks, which has proved to bring great effects.
Luc Ngan district, home to the Luc Ngan lychee which was among nine famous Vietnamese dishes/food groups and specialties recognised by the Asian Record Organisation in April 2023, launched a tourism promotion programme in June.
The programme offered tours to fruit-laden orchards where tourists could eat fresh lychee to their heart’s content and also had a chance to taste famous specialties of the locality such as hill chicken, horse spring roll, Cam Son shrimp and fish, and lychee honey.
The harvest time for early-ripening lychees fell between May 20 and early June this year, while the main crop began on around June 10 and ran until July 20.
The province has the country’s largest lychee-growing area of over 28,000 hectares. Currently, Bac Giang lychee enjoys protection in eight countries namely China, the US, Japan, Australia, the RoK, Singapore, Laos and Cambodia. The geographical indication (GI) of Luc Ngan lychee is the first Vietnamese GI officially protected in the Japanese market, reflecting its high quality./.
