Increasing the value of Cam Lam's century-old mango trees

The ancient mango gardens in Cam Lam district ( Khanh Hoa ) are hundreds of years old and are being preserved and enhanced in value by young people.

According to locals, the ancient mango gardens in Cam Lam were formed in the early 20th century.

The French brought the Canh Nong mango variety from India, which was then grown by the people into large mango gardens.

Ancient mango trees planted since the French period

Ancient mango trees are planted in large gardens.

Mr. Pham Xuan Thin (71 years old, in Cam Hoa commune) said that Canh Nong mango has a large trunk, branches and leaves reaching high, creating a very wide canopy. Therefore, Canh Nong mango is planted quite sparsely. Each tree is dozens of meters apart, to create space for the mango tree to grow, and not have to "touch" other trees.

In Mr. Thin's ancient mango garden, most of the mango trees are 50-60 years old, and there are also mango trees over a hundred years old. There are ancient mango trees with rough trunks that are so big that 3 people cannot hug them, with long branches and leaves creating a shade canopy over a large area of ​​land.

"This variety has small but fragrant fruit, creating a specialty of Cam Ranh - Cam Lam mango land for a time. But later it gradually lost its advantage due to low yield.

Canh Nong mangoes are gradually being replaced by new hybrid mango varieties and imported varieties with large fruits, which are more popular in the market. However, in Cam Lam, the old mango gardens of Canh Nong variety still maintain a large area" - Mr. Thin said.

Processing of mango products

Products made from mango bring high economic value. In the photo: Making mango cake from ripe mango

According to Mr. Tran Le Hoa (29 years old) - director of Mango Cat Tien Company, Canh Nong mango has long been a typical mango variety in the locality.

"Each mango season, each ancient mango tree produces at least 500kg of fruit. Many trees produce 1-3 tons of mango. The large mango yield is a fairly stable source of raw materials for the production and processing of mango products," said Mr. Hoa.

According to Mr. Hoa, in the past, people only knew how to grow and sell mangoes to traders. When the mango season was ripe, there were too many mangoes to sell quickly, so mango growers were often forced to lower their prices. Therefore, mangoes were often sold at very low prices. Sometimes they had to be thrown away in grief.

Currently, Mr. Hoa’s factories are making mango products, notably mango rice paper and dried mango. These products are popular because they are convenient and easy to preserve.

Mr. Hoa's factory owns many ancient mango gardens and connects with other mango gardens to have enough raw materials. In the direction of expanding production scale, Mr. Hoa's company will soon have many other mango processing factories connected with Cam Lam's ancient mango gardens.

Mango garden tour

Tourists enjoy the experience in the ancient mango garden

Together with Mr. Hoa, Mr. Dang The Truyen (33 years old), director of Camlamonline Company Limited, has succeeded in finding a new direction to increase the value of ancient mango gardens in Cam Lam. Mr. Truyen's company is the only local enterprise doing tourism associated with ancient mango gardens.

Mr. Truyen's mango garden tour started in early 2023, when he realized that Cam Lam district is located between Nha Trang city and Cam Ranh city, close to major tourist areas in Bai Dai, so it is easy to welcome guests. Mr. Truyen created the website Camlamonline.com to introduce places to eat and have fun in the district, especially mango garden tours.

This tour has guests every week, mainly in groups, who want to visit the mango garden, enjoy mango dishes and make their own mango products (mango cake, mango tea, dried mango with salt and chili, etc.). Guests who come to this tour all seem excited because of the new experience.

"These ancient mango trees have been with the locals for generations. If we know how to exploit the potential of these mango gardens, they will live with the locals for much longer," said Mr. Truyen.

TRAN HOAI

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