Every year from May to August is the ripe fruit season, farmers and small sellers put fruits on sale along roadsides. The most impressive is Cach Mang Thang Tam street from An Son crossroads to Cau Ngang, Lai Thieu in Thuan An City.
Consumers choose to buy good-quality, affordable fruits to protect their own rights.
To be in season
The most popular fruits in this season are Lai Thieu mangosteen, jackfruit, durian, strawberry, rambutan, pomelo, orange... Most fruit stalls display their "home-grown" fruits, which are unlike markets' fruits that are mixed with different exotic fruits, like apples, grapes, oranges, etc.
Thuan An City has a large area of mangosteen trees and is famous all over the country for its brand name of Lai Thieu Mangosteen. Gardeners here are very happy, because mangosteen this year is in a good season. Small sellers are also contented, because the consumption of mangosteen is strong. According to gardeners in Thuan An City, mangosteen production of this year increased by 20-30% compared to the previous crop. In wards of An Thanh, Hung Dinh, Binh Nham and An Son commune, mangosteen orchards this year are laden with fruits. According to experience of gardeners, a mangosteen tree usually does not flower in clusters, but each branch has only one flower, one fruit, and trees start flowering in lunar November and December. The duration from young fruits to harvest is about 5 months, the harvest season starts from the 5th of lunar May and last about 3 months.
Le Thi Kim Huong is the owner of a mangosteen orchard, which is nearly 100 years old in Binh Nham ward. Ms. Huong said, this year's crop is expected to increase by 20% compared to the previous year. This is due to the recent investment in inland plumbing and dykes. "The local government also supports gardeners in buying fertilizer and taking care of fruit trees. Besides, thanks to careful care, mangosteen trees grow well, have more fruit and higher quality," said Ms. Huong.
At this time, growers in Lai Thieu area sell mangosteen for 40,000 - 70,000 VND / kg, while fruit stalls along roads sell at higher prices. The owner of Bich Dao fruit stall said that in this season the bestsellers were mangosteen and durian, which become ripen naturally. Tourists and passers-by also like Lai Thieu mangosteen. Compared to many other fruits, mangosteen always has a stable price.
Be smart consumers
However, due to the massive "attack" of imported fruits, domestic fruits have been somewhat overwhelmed on the home market. Foreign fruits have the stronger competitiveness, because of its variety, attractive appearances, colors, and product production. This makes domestic fruits gradually lose points in the eyes of consumers. Le Thi Thu Hang, a retail seller of imported fruits in the area, said that foreign fruits have a better appearance than domestic fruits, are all beautiful and in labeled packages.
Recently, Vietnamese fruits have made considerable efforts, gradually strengthened their position on the market and regain consumers' trust. The evidence is that more and more domestic products have entered supermarkets and expanded to foreign markets. For example, the province has green-skin pomelo of Tan My Cooperative (North Tan Uyen District), seedless guava grown by organic method of Thanh Kien Cooperative (Phu Giao District), Thanh Thuy Pomelo (Bau Bang District), banana of U&I, and melon of Kim Long High-tech Cooperative (Phu Giao District) ...
In fact, fruits like oranges and tangerines grown by farmers still face difficulties in accessing modern sales channels such as supermarkets and convenience stores. However, many imported citrus fruits, such as Australian oranges, are sold at supermarkets, convenience stores in large quantities with and eye-catching displays. Similarly, many types of imported apple, pear, grape etc. are also preferred at supermarkets and often have discounted prices. This makes consumers want to buy Vietnamese fruits, but sometimes inconveniently to find compared to imported fruits.
Many consumers believe that there are many domestic fruits of good quality, beautiful designs, and can completely compete with imported fruits. Moreover, domestic fruits do not have to bear the import costs, thus the price will be more affordable than other imported fruits of similar quality. Therefore, producers and businesses should pay more attention to the domestic market, besides improving product quality, ensuring hygiene and safety, a strategy is in need to promote brand name, elevate the position of Vietnamese fruits on the home market. That is not to mention there are currently many fruits of unknown origin, fake foreign fruits to deceive consumers. Therefore, every person should be a smart consumer, gives the priority to Vietnamese goods.
Reported by Thoai Phuong - Translated by Ngoc Huynh
