Harvesting early ripe longan

It is more than 2 months until the main longan harvest season, but now, thanks to the effective application of intensive farming techniques, some early-ripening longan gardens in the province have begun to yield harvests with high selling prices.

Currently, the whole province has nearly 5 thousand hectares of longan of all kinds, of which the area of early ripening longan accounts for 5 to 7%, grown in the districts of An Thi, Phu Cu, Tien Lu, Kim Dong, Hung Yen city... This year, the output of early ripening longan is estimated at about 5 thousand tons.

Mr. Dang Van Xay, Director of Hong Nam Longan Cooperative, harvests early ripening longan.

Hong Nam Longan Cooperative (HTX), Hong Nam Commune (Hung Yen City) has over 12 hectares of longan, of which more than 1 hectare is planted with early ripening longan. With many years of experience, the gardeners here have mastered the techniques of processing flowering and fruiting and created 3 longan harvest periods: early tea, medium tea and late tea. Of which, early ripening longan and late ripening longan have a selling price 2 to 3 times higher than the main season longan, contributing to improving cultivation efficiency. To stabilize the yield of early ripening longan, avoiding the situation of "one year of eating fruit, one year of returning branches", garden owners apply technical measures from weather monitoring, using pesticides to flower and fruit care. The advantage of early ripening longan is that it is not under competitive pressure with longan from other provinces, and is favored by the market. Mr. Dang Van Xay, Director of Hong Nam Longan Cooperative, has 1.6 hectares of longan growing varieties such as: Duong Phen, T6, Huong Chi... Of which, the proportion of longan using mechanical measures to stimulate flowering and early fruit set accounts for 90% of the area. Currently, Mr. Xay's family's early ripening longan is sold wholesale at an average price of 50,000 VND/kg and supply cannot meet demand. On average, each year, his family earns a profit of over 200 million VND from growing longan. These days, the Cooperative is actively harvesting the early tea longan area, focusing on taking care of the main season longan in preparation for harvest in mid-August. Mr. Xay said: From the beginning of May until now, early ripening longan tea has yielded about 2 tons, mainly T6 longan, the price of longan fruit sold at the garden is from 40 - 60,000 VND/kg, and traders highly appreciate its quality. In 2023, the total revenue of the cooperative will reach over 1.2 billion VND, of which revenue from early tea longan accounts for about 5%.

Comrade Nguyen Ngoc Hung, Chairman of Hong Nam Commune People's Committee said: To enhance the value of Hung Yen longan specialty, in recent years, the commune has coordinated with specialized sectors to build safe production models and expand the area of VietGAP certification, train and transfer intensive longan cultivation techniques to farmers... Thanks to that, many farmers have skillfully applied techniques to make the tree flower and bear fruit as desired, contributing to increasing value and economic efficiency.

Currently, Kim Dong district has about 280 hectares of longan, of which the area of early ripening longan accounts for 5 to 10%, concentrated in the communes of Hiep Cuong, Ngoc Thanh, Hung An... This year, the output of early ripening longan is estimated at about 150 tons. In particular, longan in gardens grown according to VietGAP standards has good quality, is chosen to buy more by traders, representatives of supermarkets, businesses... so it sells at a higher price. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, a longan buyer, shared: Every year I go to Ngoc Thanh commune to buy early ripening longan, this year, since the beginning of May, I have had longan to sell in the Hanoi market. Early ripening longan is very popular with customers, sells quickly and has a good price because it is the first longan of the season and the quality of the longan is very fragrant and delicious.

Comrade Nguyen Quoc Viet, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kim Dong district said: To improve economic efficiency from early tea longan, the district encourages cooperatives, cooperative groups and gardeners to join in linking production and consumption of longan, at the same time, applying technical measures to some high-quality longan varieties to harvest early tea longan, spread out in the season such as: Pulp, super sweet... This year, gardeners have a lot of experience in producing early ripening longan, so the average yield is from 5 to 7 quintals/sao.

Although early ripening longan is economically efficient and easy to sell, it faces some difficulties because longan cultivation depends heavily on the weather, requiring growers to have experience in care and apply technical measures to "promote" flowering and fruiting in different seasons; there are not many early ripening longan varieties that are resistant to pests and diseases and adaptable to weather conditions, so the expansion of early ripening longan acreage over the years is still limited.

The implementation of spreading the crop, introducing early-ripening and late-ripening longan varieties to avoid pressure on prices, consumption markets, and increase income value has been applied by specialized sectors, cooperatives, and gardeners in the province. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development selects, conserves, and expands the planting area of specialty longan varieties, implements integrated pest management programs on longan trees, and supports farmers in planting and caring for longan according to VietGAP procedures. Along with that, gardeners proactively research and apply science and technology to longan production, prioritize the use of organic fertilizers and pesticides in the permitted list, and implement the "4 rights" principle in longan cultivation to ensure quality, hygiene, and food safety, and increase the value of specialty agricultural products of the province.

Van Anh

Source