Chairman of the People’s Committee of northern Bac Giang province askedrelevant authorities to actively examine lychee export markets in a bidto minimise the reliance on China, the province’s traditionalmarket.

Accordingly, the province will promote lycheeproduction in line with current development plans and quality standardsto ensure food safety and meet the demand of traditional and newmarkets.

In addition, by 2015 a 100-hectare lychee cultivationarea will comply with the Global Good Agricultural Practices(GlobalGAP), expecting an output of 500-600 tonnes at the Hong Xuancooperative in Hong Giang commune in Luc Ngan district.

Theprovince expects to have 150 hectares and 170 hectares of lycheecultivation certified as GlobalGAP crops by 2016 and 2017, respectively.It also encourages enterprises to connect with producers in order toexpand cultivation areas with a view to exporting to new markets.

It also pledged to expand the total cultivation area to 9,500 hectares with a capacity of 47,000-57,000 tonnes.

Furthermore, Bac Giang’s lychee is registered for protection in theUS, Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK), the EU, Russia, Israel, Singapore and many other countries.

The province is running a number of trade promotion campaigns in potential markets.-VNA