Hai Duong (VNA) – The northernprovince of Hai Duong has been taking actions to promote lychee sales, as thespecialty fruit of its Thanh Ha district is ripening in thelatter half of May.

The Hai Duong Department of Industryand Trade and the Thanh Ha People’s Committee held a conference on April 26 toseek ways for promoting lychee sales and improving the fruit’s value.

Renowned for lychee, Thanh Hais currently home to 3,265ha under the fruit, including 1,700ha ofearly-ripening one. About 400ha has met VietGAP standards and 50ha GlobaGAP.

China remains a large market ofVietnamese lychee. This year, lychee export to China will face many challengesas this neighbouring market has high and strict requirements for agriculturalimports, so localities should work harder on production organisation andquality management, said To Ngoc Son, Deputy Director of the Asia - Africa MarketDepartment at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Luong Thi Kiem, Deputy Director of the Hai Duong Department of Agriculture andRural Development, said that to facilitate export, agriculture authorities havecoordinated with relevant agencies to grant production unit codes (PUCs) andpacking house codes (PHCs). So far, 199 PUCs for 1,119ha of lychee have beenprovided.

The province has also proposed the agricultureministry’s Plant Protection Department grant five more PUCs to lychee farmingzones to serve export to China, she noted.

Meanwhile, 21 PHCs have been givento Hai Duong to serve export to China, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan,and Thailand, Kiem said, adding that her agency is also asking the PlantProtection Department to grant another three PHCs so as to meet demand forlychee shipments to China.

Thanh Ha district houses 45 lycheefarming zones provided with 168 PUCs. It is fine-tuning regulations to maintainthe 11 granted PHCs and have an additional three, according to the official.

Tran Van Hao, Director of theprovincial Department of Industry and Trade, highlighted that Hai Duong’s salesstrategy this year is to diversify export markets and firmly maintain thedomestic one.

The province has been moving toboost trade promotion since the start of the lychee crop, including sustainingand expanding export markets in case of complex COVID-19 developments andconnecting with localities nationwide, shopping centres, big supermarketsystems, and e-commerce platforms to advertise local lychee, he went on.

Some lychee production and exportingcompanies estimated that 85% of the workload has been completed to be ready fora successful crop.

Nguyen Khac Tien, Chairman of theAmeii Vietnam JSC, noted his company has equipped itself with more processingand packaging machinery to prepare for exporting lychee to high-end markets. Asidefrom the buyers in previous years continuing to place large orders, it hopes toenter new markets this year to increase the export volume./.