Yen Chau farmers prepare fruits for Lunar New Year

These days, farmers in Yen Chau district are focusing on taking care of their fruit gardens, ensuring the supply of the best quality products to serve the market.

Farmers in Phieng Khoai commune, Yen Chau district take care of grapefruit.

Grapefruit is one of the indispensable fruits during Tet. Grasping the consumption demand, grapefruit farmers in Yen Chau focus on taking care of the trees and nurturing the fruits. Visiting the grapefruit garden of Mr. Dao Van Han's family, Chieng Thi village, Chieng Pan commune, the grapefruit garden is full of fruit, starting to ripen. Mr. Han said: The family grows 1 hectare of grapefruit, is focusing on taking care of it to sell during Tet, around December 20, traders will start to come to buy. Each fruit weighs from 1.3 - 1.7 kg, this year will harvest nearly 5 tons of grapefruit, selling price 18,000 - 20,000 VND/kg type 1 and 10,000 - 15,000 VND/kg type 2. This year's grapefruit crop, the family expects to earn about 80 million VND.

According to Mr. Han, to have grapefruits to sell in time for Tet, the family proactively cut branches from the sixth lunar month. Although the weather was not favorable when the trees were in bloom, thanks to careful care, the grapefruit garden produced beautiful fruits, and traders came to see and order early. The grapefruits for Tet must be beautiful, bright in appearance, of moderate size, and have all their stems and leaves intact. Therefore, the family takes more careful and meticulous care.

As for the grapefruit garden of Ms. Ha Thi Chinh, Vang Lung village, Chieng Hac commune, to prepare grapefruit to sell for Tet, a few months before, she nourished the trees with organic fertilizer, removing some of the quantity so that the trees could focus on nurturing the remaining fruits to achieve the best weight and quality. It is expected that this year, the grapefruit garden will harvest more than 1 ton of fruit. In particular, Ms. Chinh also experimented with grafting molds and creating embossed letters on grapefruit.

Ms. Chinh shared: Shaping the grapefruit is very eye-catching, but also requires meticulousness and dexterity. When the grapefruit has grown for 2 months, it is put into the compression mold. The compression mold is made of hard, transparent plastic and has many shapes, screwed around the mold to fix the grapefruit so that it does not crack or break. The grapefruit that is shaped properly has a beautiful shape, is smooth, not rough, golden yellow, from 1-1.3 kg/fruit. The grapefruits with the words Phuc - Loc - Tho - Tai are very popular, with a high price of 200,000-250,000 VND/fruit. Currently, the family's entire grapefruit garden has been ordered by traders, and after deducting expenses, it is expected to earn a profit of about 50 million VND.

In addition to grapefruit, bananas are also a fruit that people look for a lot in the days before Tet. As one of the localities with the largest banana acreage in the province, Yen Chau banana farmers are actively taking care of them to have beautiful bunches of bananas to serve the market.

In Sap Vat commune, banana growers are clearing their gardens, pruning leaves, and wrapping banana bunches in plastic. Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, Hin Lam village, Sap Vat commune, shared: Understanding the high demand for bananas during Tet, her family has set aside 1,000 square meters of land to grow bananas. Near Tet, the weather is often cold and dry, if not carefully cared for, the fruit will have a burnt skin. Currently, the family has about 30 bunches, during Tet, the price of bananas increases 1.5-2 times compared to normal days, from 12,000-15,000 VND/kg, so it brings in a good income.

In recent years, fruit tree production in Yen Chau has been invested and developed by households, continuously increasing in both area and value. Many farming households consider Tet as the main crop of the year, so they invest and take better care of it.

Mr. Cao Xuan Dung, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Yen Chau district, said: The fruit market during Tet has become an opportunity for farmers to increase their income. In recent years, Yen Chau farmers have increased the application of science and technology in production to ensure productivity and quality of fruit; proactively linked consumption; ensured food safety to meet product requirements for consumption during Tet.

Article and photos: Thanh Huyen

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