The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang has expanded the growing area for local key fruits to almost 33,000 hectares, hoping to produce nearly 640,000 tonnes of fruit on an annual basis.

The key fruits have been named as Hoa Loc mango, Co Co grapefruit, Ngu Hiep durian, Tan Phuoc pineapple, Vinh Kim star apple, Cho Gao dragon fruit and Go Cong cherry, according to Director of the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Thanh Can.

Besides expanding the cultivation area, the province has applied advanced farming techniques and manufacturing processes in line with Vietnam Agricultural Practice (VietGap) standards, in order to better fruit quality.

As a result, local farmers can earn an extra 100-200 million VND per hectare a year, double or three times higher than that from rice growing. Some arboriculturists even fetched a record profit of 500 million VND (23,800 USD) per hectare per year.

The locality has set up 43 agricultural cooperatives, including 17 producing and selling fruits with star apples and pineapples meeting Global GAP and VietGAP criteria.-VNA