This year’s lychee season for Vietnam growers and processors promises to be more remunerative than previous seasons, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
This time around, the harvest from mid-May to mid-July is expected to yield more than 200,000 tonnes of fresh lychee, slightly outpacing last year’s harvest, a representative from MARD unveiled.
Of which, about 60%, or 120,000 tonnes, will be consumed domestically. The remaining 80,000 tonnes will be dried or processed with the pulp frozen and shipped to foreign markets.
The northern provinces and larger cities of Hanoi, Thua Thien-Hue, Danang and HCM City have historically comprised 53% of domestic demand with the remaining southern provinces account for the 43% balance.
China is forecast to remain the largest export market and account for 90% of total export volume, while the Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore markets are expected to remain negligible.
However this season Vietnam can now export fresh lychees to the US, Australia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (RoK) and pilot programmes are underway to test the markets.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) in turn has said the quality of Vietnamese lychee has been gradually improving, while prices have been stable. This year’s sales price of lychee in both domestic and foreign markets is on par with last year.
Solutions to increase consumption
The MoIT and the MARD have been working hand in hand with with domestic growers to insure cultivation methods are in accordance with GlobalGAP and VietGAP modern food quality and hygiene standards.
They have also been engaged with processors over the past year in developing much improved post-processing preservation technology because many markets such as Japan are located far from Vietnam, requiring greater transportation time.
In addition, the two ministries have worked closely with the Bac Giang provincial People’s Committee on solutions to increase lychee consumption in the peak season.
Lastly, the MoIT will meet with Vietnamese and Chinese enterprises in the northern border provinces of Lao Cai and Lang Son in late May in the hope of helping lychee access overseas markets through border gates.
The MoIT anticipates that this year lychee overall consumption will be much improved and more profitable in comparison to last year.
VOV
