Having the desire to rebuild the brand of Lai Thieu orchards and preserve the ecological area for Thuan An urban area, Binh Duong provincial People's Committee and the People's Committee of Thuan An city have had many policies to support the people as the owners of the orchards of specialty fruits in the area. At the same time, the festival of "Lai Thieu in the ripe fruit season" is organized to create conditions for Thuan An city to promote the development of the orchard economy in association with tourism business activities and riverside tourism.
Orchards of specialty in Thuan An city is attractive to tourists far and wide
Plentiful supporting policies
We returned to visit Cau Ngang on the ripe fruit season. The surrounding orchards began to give ripe fruits. Running along Vam Bung canal, the passionate scent of mangosteen, durian, and jackfruit from the garden is like holding the footsteps of the travelers. The "orchard cultural" space has created a unique feature of this land as a famous tourist destination of entering poetry and music that impress many people who once visited.
Nguyen Thi My Hanh, Chairwoman of Hung Dinh Ward Farmers’ Association, said: “Hung Dinh is an agricultural ward, specializing in orchards, having a system of canals adjacent to the Saigon River. Over the past time, along with the State policies to support the local people, the ward has developed a model of ecotourism in orchards and achieved some results. The most outstanding is to revive Cau Ngang tourist site that was once famous for a while; at the same time, help should be extended to gardeners to consume high-priced agricultural products and create jobs of more income to the people.”
Currently, in Hung Dinh ward, 4 orchards are doing businesses with effective ecological models in Hung Tho quarter including Be Hai orchard, Hong Van orchard, Orchard 99 and Ba Tam orchard. Nguyen Van Doi, owner of the Orchard 99 said: “My family has been growing fruit trees since the time of my father. Our family orchard has an area of nearly 2 hectares with many kinds of fruit trees such as durian, mangosteen, jackfruit, strawberry etc. including bamboo shoots that are over a hundred years old. Over the past years, thanks to the State's supporting policies, we have had better conditions to improve the greenery to give high productivity and quality and keep the brand of Lai Thieu orchards. Besides, the garden house ecotourism model has been gradually restored and developed to increase income for orchard owners.”
Expecting for favorable development, Doi said that his family has invested in repairing huts to serve visitors to the orchard to enjoy special fruits and garden dishes like the mangosteen chicken salad of Lai Thieu. Currently, his garden house is ready to welcome tourists during the upcoming holidays of April 30 and May 1.
In the area of Thuan An city, an area of more than 1,000 hectares are for orchards, stretching over 6 communes and wards along the Saigon River including Vinh Phu, Lai Thieu, Binh Nham, Hung Dinh, An Thanh, and An Son. Of the area, the number of mangosteen trees over 50 years old accounts for 11% of the number of all mangosteen trees in the area. In recent years, orchards have shown a decrease in productivity and quality. Facing such situation, Binh Duong provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 63/2016/QD-UBND dated December 20, 2016 on policies to support the development of orchards for 2017-2021. Truong Cong Thach, Deputy Head of Economic Department of Thuan An city, said: “Thanks to the provincial supporting policy, farmers have been aware of their responsibility for traditional specialty orchards, meeting the expectations of many households and contributing to the restoration of orchards and improving the lives of farmers.”
Truong Cong Thach, added that in addition to the above policies, the People's Committees of the province and Thuan An city also researched to find ways to improve productivity and quality to keep the orchards and increase income for farmers. Every year, the locality has plans to dredge and clear the flow of the drainage system to proactively irrigate, wash alum, prevent salinity and keep the flow fresh. At the same time, Thuan An city also synchronously implements 4 stages of production, purchase, processing-preserving and consumption with the association program of functional agencies. Of the stages, the role of the State is to link the remaining agencies; at the same time, it is to organize a production movement to attract farmers in communes and wards along the Saigon River to apply technical advances to the orchards and to register for building and developing the brand of "Lai Thieu Mangosteen " to increase the value of specialty fruits.
To maintain festival ripe fruits
For many years, Thuan An city has been known by many people as a famous place of many kinds of delicious tropical fruits at the age of up to 200 years. In recent years, Lai Thieu orchards have been considered as an ideal picnic destination. With the desire to rebuild the brand of Lai Thieu orchards, a place that has entered the subconscious of many tourists when coming to Binh Duong and at the same time building and preserving ecological zones for Thuan An urban area, for many years in Thuan An City, there has been a festival named "Lai Thieu in the ripe fruit season" that facilitates the development of orchard economy associated with tourism.
Nguyen Tu Hai, Head of Culture and Information of Thuan An city, said: “Binh Duong provincial People's Committee, since 2013, has approved the policy for Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to coordinate with other departments, branches and People's Committee of Thuan An city to hold the festival of "Lai Thieu in the ripe fruit season" in Cau Ngang area of Hung Dinh ward on the occasion of Doan Ngo (the 5th of the 5th lunar month). The festival has restored the value of the homegrown brands. The festival's activities have contributed to the attraction of tourists to visit, have fun, and enjoy the sweet fruits and specialties of the land of Binh Duong; at the same time, it helps promote the image of Lai Thieu fruit trees."
In order to promote the economic development along the river and exploit all the potentials and advantages, especially in ecotourism and riverside tourism, in the coming time, Thuan An city will focus on improving the quality of production of the existing tourism products and on developing new tourism products in Lai Thieu orchards. The festival of "Lai Thieu in ripe fruit season" is maintained to attract visitors to the orchards in Cau Ngang and neighboring fruit areas, heading towards forming a local festive tourism brand.
In addition, the city will strengthen links and develop many tourism products to serve tourists; will coordinate with Binh Duong provincial Tourism Promotion Center and travel business units to create tourism products; will associate ecotourism (garden tourism and river tourism) with cultural tourism (visiting cultural historical relics, festivals, craft villages, spiritual tourism, and beliefs), resort tourism shopping (at Phuong Nam restaurant, Min Ky, An Lam River Resort, Minh Sang Plaza, and Aeon Supermarket) or visitors can combine the above tourism products into tours. In addition, the city will invest in the construction of inland waterway terminals according to the plan approved by the provincial People's Committee to connect with tours and tour routes by ships and boats on the Saigon River; organizations and individuals are mobilized to invest in the homestay models in An Son commune, Hung Dinh ward, and An Thanh ward in the form of socialization.
Reported by Phuong Le – Translated by Vi Bao
