Bac Giang earns VND 7 trillion from Thieu lychee: Miracle in hardships

Historical Thieu lychee crop

This year Thieu lychee crop in Bac Giang was produced and consumed amidst the outbreak and spreading of the Covid-19 pandemic from May. It was the time for Thieu lychee crop to enter the harvest stage with the bumper output reaching over 215,000 tons, the highest ever, posing huge challenges and hardships for the locality.

As stated by Bac Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Department the Covid-19 pandemic had battered the province and it impeded seasonal laborers from other localities to enter the region to serve the harvest, processing, packaging, and production, and other supplementary services.

Some domestic markets with huge consumption capacity namely Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai were also staggered by Covid-19, as a result, series of wholesale markets were forced to shut down or open perfunctorily.

On the other hand, the ability to approach, negotiate, and sign cooperative agreements in Thieu lychee exports of provincial and domestic enterprises and cooperatives to the markets of Japan, US, Australia, EU, the Middle East among others were still limited.

This put Bac Giang province and especially lychee growers in an extremely difficult situation and faced the risk of having the worst lychee season in history ever due to barriers in consumption from the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic.

To acquire a successful lychee season, in addition to the support of the Central Government and domestic and foreign organizations and individuals, the political system and lychee growers in Bac Giang also have proactive plans previously and the result was a win lychee crop beyond expectations.

Accordingly, total lychee consumption in Bac Giang province in 2021 reached 215,852 tons, of which early ripening lychee consumption was 58,805 tons, main season lychee consumption reached 157,047 tons, all of which were higher than every year.

The domestic market was exclusively paid attention to and expanded with a total domestic consumption of 126,552 tons in localities such as Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, and neighboring provinces in the North, Central provinces, Central Highlands, and Southern provinces.

Especially, in 2021, Thieu lychee was sold online on some platforms namely Facebook, Zalo, Youtube among others, and other e-commercial platforms such as Voso, Sendo, Tiki, Shopee, Lazada, postmark, Alibaba with the largest volume and consumption output, reaching over 6,000 tons.

For the export market, which was assumed to be stable, lychee fruit can affirm its brand name and positioned its value in many countries and territories around the world with a total export volume of 89,300 tons.

The results of proactive and professional production

Bac Giang province assessed that despite the disadvantage developments of Covid-19, the price of Thieu lychee retained stably from the very beginning to the end of the crop, lychee prices are equivalent, sometimes even higher than those in the years without the pandemic.

Total revenue from lychee and supplementary services of Bac Giang province was estimated at VND 6,821 billion, of which the former was estimated at VND 4,274 billion while the latter was about VND 2,547 billion.

Previously, right from the beginning of the crop, Bac Giang province had forecasted the developments of the pandemic, therefore, it proposed to the government to facilitate the entry of 190 foreign traders to the region to purchase Thieu lychee.

The Bac Giang provincial government has also supported and always created the best conditions through many ways for Chinese traders to connect domestic companies, cooperatives, and businessmen to import lychee to the Chinese market.

The province also instructed the localities to apply science and techniques as well as advanced production progress namely VietGAP, Global Gap, and organic to improve the Thieu lychee quality.

At the same time, preparing the best conditions for lychee production and consumption, actively invite businesses to participate in the link chain, consume lychee, and promote the promotion and branding of products, especially diversifying consumption channels to e-commerce platforms, social networks...

"The key to success is the active participation in the leadership and direction of the whole political system. In which, the urgent role of departments and agencies in advising and directing is pushed higher than ever. Now is the time to remove difficulties in the production and consumption of lychee for farmers," said Duong Thanh Tung - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Giang province.