The Hai Duong Department of Industry and Trade and the Thanh Ha People’s Committee held a conference on April 26 to seek ways for promoting lychee sales and improving the fruit’s value.
Renowned for lychee, Thanh Ha is currently home to 3,265ha under the fruit, including 1,700ha of early-ripening one. About 400ha has met VietGAP standards and 50ha GlobaGAP.
China remains a large market of Vietnamese lychee. This year, lychee export to China will face many challenges as this neighbouring market has high and strict requirements for agricultural imports, so localities should work harder on production organisation and quality management, said To Ngoc Son, Deputy Director of the Asia - Africa Market Department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Luong Thi Kiem, Deputy Director of the Hai Duong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that to facilitate export, agriculture authorities have coordinated with relevant agencies to grant production unit codes (PUCs) and packing house codes (PHCs). So far, 199 PUCs for 1,119ha of lychee have been provided.
The province has also proposed the agriculture ministry’s Plant Protection Department grant five more PUCs to lychee farming zones to serve export to China, she noted.
Meanwhile, 21 PHCs have been given to Hai Duong to serve export to China, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Thailand, Kiem said, adding that her agency is also asking the Plant Protection Department to grant another three PHCs so as to meet demand for lychee shipments to China.
Thanh Ha district houses 45 lychee farming zones provided with 168 PUCs. It is fine-tuning regulations to maintain the 11 granted PHCs and have an additional three, according to the official.
Tran Van Hao, Director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, highlighted that Hai Duong’s sales strategy this year is to diversify export markets and firmly maintain the domestic one.
The province has been moving to boost trade promotion since the start of the lychee crop, including sustaining and expanding export markets in case of complex COVID-19 developments and connecting with localities nationwide, shopping centres, big supermarket systems, and e-commerce platforms to advertise local lychee, he went on.
Some lychee production and exporting companies estimated that 85% of the workload has been completed to be ready for a successful crop.
Nguyen Khac Tien, Chairman of the Ameii Vietnam JSC, noted his company has equipped itself with more processing and packaging machinery to prepare for exporting lychee to high-end markets. Aside from the buyers in previous years continuing to place large orders, it hopes to enter new markets this year to increase the export volume./.
