Hung Yen (VNA) – Farmers in the Red River Delta province of Hung Yen are making final preparations for the 2024 longan harvest season that will start next month.
Members of the Quyet Thang speciality fruit cooperative in Tan Hung commune, Hung Yen city, have been spending days and nights at their over 30 hectares of orchards which are expected to yield about 150 tonnes of longan this year.
Director Tran Van My said the cooperative was set up by 17 local households in 2017, with 30 hectares under the local famous fruit that follow the VietGAP standards. In 2020, its fresh longan was the first in Hung Yen to be exported to the European Union (EU).
Apart from promotion activities on social networks, the cooperative has also launched farm tours, aiming to introduce the fruit to both domestic and foreign consumers, he said.
Over the past years, many local households have adopted organic farming methods, supplying safe longan products to domestic and foreign markets.
Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Van Trang said Hung Yen is now home to about 5,000 hectares of longan, some 1,700 hectares of which meet the VietGAP standards, accounting for about 34% of the total. Many longan products of local cooperatives have been recognised as items under the “One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) programme.
In Hung Yen city alone, there are more than 500 hectares following the VietGAP standards, and 10 orchards have been granted the origin tracing and authenticity system (OTAS) certificates./.
