Hong Nam commune, Hung Yen city is a large concentrated longan growing area, with an area of nearly 200 hectares. Nguyen Minh Lang, an officer in charge of agricultural production in Hong Nam commune, said that this is the time for the main harvest season of longan. This year, the output of longan in Hong Nam commune has been estimated at 1,700 tonnes.
Currently, farmers are very worried about the longan season, because every year traders and businesses from everywhere flock to Hong Nam to order large quantities; But this year, there are very few people coming to order to buy longan, and thus the price of longan is low. Therefore, in addition to selling fresh longan, longan garden owners plan to use drying kilns in the commune to make dried longan; although the price is lower, the output is less time sensitive.
According to Nguyen Quang Dien, Director of the Tien Chau Longan Cooperative, Hong Nam Commune, this year, Tien Chau Cooperative has about 130 tonnes of longan. In order to overcome difficulties in transporting and trading the fresh longan, the cooperative has launched sales on e-commerce trading floors and signed contracts with two businesses in Ho Chi Minh City. The cooperative also delivered 20 tonnes of fresh longan to the business, but it had to stop as the Covid-19 epidemic interrupted the transportation of longan to Ho Chi Minh City.
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This year, the output of longan in Hong Nam commune is estimated at 1,700 tonnes. (Photo: PHAM THANH)
Currently, Tien Chau Longan Cooperative is implementing a contract to sell longan to Hung Yen Provincial Post Office. At the same time, the cooperative has signed contracts on transporting longan with a number of transportation companies being granted "QR" codes to trade longan in Hanoi and a number of provinces and cities in the country.
According to the Director of the Hung Yen Provincial Post Office Do Van Tu, with the support of the logistics centre of Vietnam Post, Hung Yen Provincial Post Office has signed a contract to trade 200 tonnes of longan with a number of longan cooperatives in the Hong Nam, Quang Chau and Phuong Chieu communes of Hung Yen city. Currently, 30 tons of longan have been sold at a higher price than usual.
In the coming time, the provincial Post Office will sign contracts with a number of cooperatives in Khoai Chau district, striving to help households growing longan in the province trade 500-600 tons.
Along with other units, Phuong Thao Production Trade Services Export Import Company Limited (Tran Cao town, Phu Cu district) has also bought tens of tonnes of longan from growers.
However, there are still difficulties in transporting longan to Hanoi and delivering it to customers, as Nguyen Van Hoi (in Hung Yen city) complained there is no parking spot for delivery. As the cars carrying the fruit all have documents (QR code, negative Covid-19 test certificate, vaccination certificate), they are allowed to travel on the green channel into Hanoi. However, cars only transport to the area under Thanh Tri bridge, and then must deliver goods to other vehicles, such as motorbike taxis to deliver to customers.
Hung Yen province has about 4,800 hectares of longan; of which, there are 4,500 ha of longan for harvesting. This year, the rate of longan flowering and fruiting is high; output is estimated at 50,000-55,000 tonnes, up 15% - 20% compared to last year.
In order to help farmers produce and trade longan with high levels of efficiency, Hung Yen province has made efforts to implement many solutions such as: organising trade promotion events for the province's longan to connect businesses, supermarkets, wholesale markets, and distribution units with longan growers; putting Hung Yen's longan on e-commerce trading floors and online markets and stores.
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Processing and making dried longan in Hong Nam commune, Hung Yen city. (Photo: PHAM THANH)
The province has also actively supported enterprises and cooperatives to participate in programmes to introduce and promote safe food and regional specialties in provinces and cities; supporting the packaging and shipping of the product to consumers nationwide.
In addition, the province has also connected and coordinated with overseas Vietnamese trade counselors to select and participate in a number of international agricultural product trade promotion events to seek out new markets; improve professionalism, online sales skills; support the implementation of procedures related to fruit and vegetable exports to boost exports, especially to markets with great potential and similarities in culture and consumption with Vietnam such as China, ASEAN, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.
Supporting the formation of linkage chains from production, processing, preservation to consumption, both creating stability in production and consumption, and ensuring product quality improvement to meet the requirements of consumers are all essential. At the same time, supporting and promoting organisations and individuals to apply processing and preservation technology of longan and longan products is important.
During the Covid-19 epidemic, many provinces and cities have implemented social distancing according to Directive 16 of the Prime Minister, Hung Yen province has tried to create all conditions necessary for the transportation and consumption of longan. Up to now, the province has issued QR codes to more than 3,000 trucks, many of which carry longan; At the same time, many traders and businesses have been mobilized to participate in the trade of fresh longan, especially in the processing of fried longan, so that farmers will be less worried about their output and sales.
