Thousands of lychee drying kilns in Luc Ngan district and Chu town are ready to operate.

BAC GIANG - In just a few days, the main lychee crop in Bac Giang province will be harvested. This year, the lychee area in Luc Ngan district and Chu town alone reaches nearly 17.6 thousand hectares, with a good harvest forecast, with an estimated output of about 110 thousand tons of fruit (equivalent to the 2023 lychee crop). Due to the short harvest time, many lychee drying facilities in these two localities have quickly repaired their drying ovens, prepared packaging locations, and stored fuel, ready for the new crop.

According to the People's Committee of Luc Ngan district and Chu town, the two localities currently have nearly 3,000 kilns for drying lychees of all kinds (using coal, electricity and cold drying). Each kiln has a capacity of consuming from 3 to tens of tons of fresh lychees per day, ensuring the demand for processing dried lychees in the area.

Mr. Nguyen Van Linh's family, Duc Chinh residential group, Thanh Hai ward (Chu town) cleaned up and repaired the drying kiln.

The number of drying kilns is concentrated in communes such as Tan Lap, Phu Nhuan, Tan Quang, Deo Gia (Luc Ngan district); Quy Son, Thanh Hai wards and Kien Lao, Kien Thanh communes (Chu town).

Mr. Nguyen Van Linh, Duc Chinh residential group, Thanh Hai ward (Chu town) said that his family has been drying lychees since 2012. At that time, he built a small kiln (fired by coal), with a capacity of 3 tons of fresh lychees/batch/day. In 2017, he built 15 more kiln doors, increasing the capacity to 7 tons of fresh lychees/batch; in 2019, he invested 170 million VND to build 30 more kiln doors. To date, his family's lychee drying kiln capacity has reached 15 tons of fresh lychees/batch/day, equivalent to more than 5 tons of dried lychees.

This year, his family had to hire 7 more workers to meet production needs. “In May, my family finished repairing the entire drying kiln area. At the same time, we ordered coal in Quang Ninh in advance to proactively use fuel for production,” said Mr. Linh.

The professional agency assessed that the current number of drying kilns in Luc Ngan and Chu town basically meets the demand for processing dried lychees and consuming a significant amount of fresh lychees in the area (about 20 thousand tons of fresh lychees). In recent years, most of the dried lychees in Bac Giang in general and Luc Ngan district (old) in particular have been consumed smoothly at quite high prices.

It is known that among nearly 3,000 lychee drying kilns in Luc Ngan district and Chu town, more than 700 kilns have been supported by the People's Committee of Luc Ngan district (old) to build and repair since 2021 to dry lychees in the context of the locality being restricted from exporting fresh lychees to foreign markets due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

News and photos: Bao Lam

Source: https://baobacgiang.vn/hang-nghin-lo-say-vai-thieu-tai-huyen-luc-ngan-va-thi-xa-chu-san-sang-hoat-dong-postid419399.bbg