Mr. Dang Van Xay, Director of Hong Nam Longan Cooperative, harvests early ripe longans

Hong Nam Longan Cooperative (HTX) in Hong Nam commune (Hung Yen city) has over 12 hectares of longan growing, including more than 1 hectare of early ripening longan. With many years of experience, the gardeners here have mastered the technique of flowering and fruiting and have created 3 longan harvest periods: early tea, middle tea and late tea. In particular, early-ripening longans and late-ripening longans have selling prices that are 2 to 3 times higher than main-season longans, contributing to improving farming efficiency. To stabilize early ripe longan yields and avoid the situation of "one year you eat fruit, another year you return the branches", garden owners apply technical measures from monitoring the weather, using pesticides to taking care of flowers. and fruit. The advantage of early-ripening longans is that they are not under competitive pressure with longans from other provinces and are favored by the market. Mr. Dang Van Xay, Director of Hong Nam Longan Cooperative, has 1.6 acres of longan varieties such as Duong Phen, T6, Huong Chi...In particular, the proportion of longans implementing mechanical measures to stimulate flowering and early fruiting accounts for 90% of the area. Currently, Mr. Xay's family's early-ripening longans sell wholesale at the garden for an average of 50,000 VND/kg and supply is not enough to meet demand. On average each year, his family earns a profit of over 200 million VND from growing longan. These days, the cooperative is actively harvesting the longan area early, focusing on taking care of the main longan crop to prepare for harvest in mid-August. Mr. Xay said: From the beginning of May until now, longan tea ripens early. Currently harvesting about 2 tons, mainly T6 longan, the price of longan fruit sold at the garden ranges from 40 - 60 thousand VND/kg, highly appreciated by traders for its quality. In 2023, the cooperative's total revenue will reach over 1.2 billion VND, of which revenue from longan tea accounts for about 5%.

 

Comrade Nguyen Ngoc Hung, Chairman of Hong Nam Commune People's Committee, said: To enhance the value of Hung Yen longan specialties, in recent years, the commune has coordinated with the professional industry to build safe and open production models. Expanding VietGAP certification area, training and transferring intensive longan farming techniques to farmers... Thanks to that, many farmers have skillfully applied techniques to make plants flower and fruit as desired, contributing to increasing value. , economic efficiency.

 

Currently, Kim Dong district has about 280 hectares of longan growing, of which the area of ​​early ripe longan accounts for 5 to 10%, concentrated in communes: Hiep Cuong, Ngoc Thanh, Hung An... This year, the output Early ripe longan is estimated at about 150 tons. In particular, longans in gardens grown according to VietGAP standards are of good quality and are chosen by traders, representatives of supermarkets, businesses... to buy more, so they sell at higher prices. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, a longan trader, shared: Every year I go to Ngoc Thanh commune to buy early ripe longans. This year, from the beginning of May I have had longans to sell in the Hanoi market. Early ripe longans are very popular with customers. They sell quickly and are priced well because they are the first longans of the season and the quality of the longans is very fragrant and delicious.

 

Comrade Nguyen Quoc Viet, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kim Dong district, said: To improve economic efficiency from early tea longan, the district encourages cooperatives, cooperative groups and gardeners to participate in joint production. consuming longans, at the same time, applying technical measures to a number of high-quality longan varieties to harvest tea longans early, spreading crops such as: Pulp, super sweet... This year, gardeners have had many Experience in producing early ripe longan results in an average yield of 5 to 7 quintals/acre.

Although longan ripens early for high economic efficiency and is easy to consume, it faces some difficulties because longan cultivation depends heavily on the weather, requiring growers to have experience in caring for and applying technical measures. to "promote" plants to flower and bear fruit throughout the crop; Not many early tea longan varieties that are resistant to pests and adapt to weather conditions have been brought into cultivation, so the expansion of the early tea longan area over the years is still limited.

The practice of spreading crops and introducing early-ripening and late-ripening longan varieties to avoid price pressure, consumer market pressure, and increase income value is applied by the professional industry, cooperatives, and gardeners in the province. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development selects, conserves, and expands the growing area of ​​specialty longan varieties, implements integrated pest management programs on longan trees, and supports farmers with techniques for planting and caring for longans. according to VietGAP process. Along with that, gardeners proactively learn and apply science and technology to longan production, prioritize the use of organic fertilizers and pesticides on the allowed list, and implement the principles of organic fertilizers and pesticides. "4 rights" in longan farming to ensure quality, hygiene, food safety, and enhance the value of the province's specialty agricultural products.