Experience the ripe longan season in the longan capital of Hung Yen

At this time, the capital of longan, Hung Yen, is entering the harvest season. In addition to harvesting, gardeners also combine developing sightseeing and experiential tourism .

This not only increases people's income but also contributes to bringing Hung Yen longan closer to domestic and foreign consumers.

Farmers do tourism

These days, the longan garden of Quyet Thang Specialty Fruit Cooperative, Tan Hung Commune, Hung Yen Province is always crowded with visitors coming to experience the feeling of picking and enjoying longan in the garden. The owner of this idea is Mr. Tran Van My, Director of the Cooperative.

Mr. My shared that after many visits and learning experiences in the southern provinces, he realized that farmers here do experiential tourism very systematically. Meanwhile, in the locality known as the capital of longan, this type of tourism has not yet developed, farmers only stop at growing and selling longan. Therefore, fresh longan and processed products from longan have difficulty finding outlets or have to rely on support channels to promote consumption from authorities at all levels.

Worried about that reality, in the 2020 longan season, Mr. My asked for local permission to take tourists to visit and experience the Cooperative's longan garden under the name "0 VND Tour."

Initially, his tourists were mainly local tourists, but later, many domestic and foreign tourists contacted him to visit and experience the longan garden. During the longan harvest season, the garden will open from 8am to 6pm and welcome guests every day of the week. When coming to the garden, visitors will enjoy free longan. If they want to buy, the garden will cut and sell to customers right in the garden.

Mr. My said that to attract customers, the Cooperative has published its phone number on the Internet and promoted information and images about the longan season on social platforms. Currently, there are many tourists coming to experience it, especially on weekends.

Every year, when the longan harvest season comes, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Do, a resident of Hanoi , and his friends come to Tan Hung commune, Hung Yen province to visit and experience the ripe longan season. Picking and enjoying bunches of ripe longan right in the garden is an unforgettable memory for him and his friends.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Do shared that he has been to many longan growing areas but every year he has to return to Hung Yen, because the longans here have many varieties and are very delicious, unmatched anywhere. Especially the feeling of picking and enjoying delicious bunches of longans right in the garden is a wonderful feeling.

According to Mr. Do, farmers changing their farming mindset and marketing mindset for their own agricultural products with prestige and quality not only helps farmers earn more income but also brings Hung Yen longan closer to domestic and foreign customers.

After the visit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delegation and international guests to visit, experience and interact with the family in August 2022, in the following longan seasons, Ms. Bui Thi Thu Huong, in Tan Hung commune, became a "tour guide" without realizing it.

Ms. Huong shared that after this tour, her family's longan garden became more well-known, and many customers came to the garden during the longan ripening season. In addition to visiting and experiencing the longan garden, customers also took photos to capture the moments of the longan ripening season. There were times when there were so many customers that we had to politely refuse them.

Ms. Huong added that when visitors visit and experience the longan garden, the garden owner not only promotes fresh longan but also introduces to customers some products processed from longan, as well as local specialties such as longan, lotus-wrapped longan, honey, tapioca starch... to bring them closer to consumers.

Building quality tourism products

Welcoming visitors to experience the ripe longan season is a new form of tourism for longan growers in Hung Yen. This is also an effective channel to promote and introduce longan products, gradually bringing Hung Yen longan closer to domestic and foreign consumers.

People in Tan Hung commune, Hung Yen province take care of longan. (Photo: Dinh Van Nhieu/VNA)

Mr. Bui Xuan Su, Deputy Director of Ne Chau Longan Cooperative, Tan Hung Commune, Hung Yen Province, shared that the fact that customers are coming to the garden is a good sign, not only known to many people but also solves the problem of "good harvest, low price" when it comes to harvest. In addition to innovating the way to approach customers, the most important factor is still to enhance the brand of longan products. Therefore, the Cooperative always aims to expand the area of organic longan cultivation. This not only protects the health of growers but also helps improve product quality and income for farmers.

Up to now, Ne Chau Longan Cooperative has 5/18 hectares of longan grown organically. This year's longan crop, in addition to opening to visitors for experience, the Cooperative has also exported a number of orders to the European market, so people are very excited.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Hung, Director of Toan Cau Food Import-Export Joint Stock Company, believes that good products will lead to good tourism. Instead of chasing quantity, Hung Yen farmers need to focus on quality, synchronously applying safe production processes such as VietGAP, GlobalGAP...

Certified products with traceability not only ensure safety for consumers but are also a "passport" to enter large supermarkets and demanding export markets, where prices are always much higher and more stable.

In addition, people need to take advantage of social networking platforms and e-commerce platforms to introduce products. For example, a good story about the clean longan growing process or a cheerful longan harvesting video can also attract a lot of customers.

Director of Hung Yen Province Tourism Promotion Center Nguyen Thi Sen assessed that the tourism model of visiting and experiencing longan gardens in the province is developing, contributing to diversifying and enriching products, increasing choices for tourists when learning and experiencing the beauty of the homeland and people of Hung Yen.

However, at present, this type of tourism has only developed spontaneously and on a small scale, without connection with other tourist destinations in the province, without a management organization model, making it difficult to control the quality of services provided to guests, and the results are not high.

In the coming time, the Provincial Tourism Promotion Center will advise the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to focus on developing and perfecting many tourism products associated with life and agricultural production activities, developing souvenir products and specialties made by farmers.

The center encourages garden owners to continue to improve quality, grow longan in an organic way; ensure food hygiene and safety, and make the garden green, clean and beautiful to develop sustainable tourism associated with environmental protection.

In addition, the provincial tourism sector continues to focus on training human resources, promoting and connecting tours and tourist routes with destinations in the province; focusing on building quality, diverse, distinctive agricultural and rural tourism products with high experience and added value, with regional characteristics; contributing to making Hung Yen tourism a unique and novel destination and an important economic sector of the province./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/trai-nghiem-mua-nhan-chin-o-thu-phu-nhan-long-hung-yen-post1057378.vnp