Hung Yen (VNA) –🅘 Many households in the northern province of Hung Yen have worked hard to preserve and develop the rare longan varieties of the locality which are gradually fading.

These days, the longan orchard of Bui Xuan Tam in Hong Nam commune, Hung Yen, city is always crowded with visitors coming to experience longan picking and enjoying the delicious fruit right in the garden. Tam said that in 1990, his family leased an old longan orchard in Ne Chau village. During a harvest season, he discovered a longan tree that produced very delicious fruits with crispy flesh that easily separated from the seed, and a strong honey fragrance, comparable to the well-known "rock sugar" longan variety. He took the seeds and cultivated them in his garden, and two years later, the longan trees began to bear fruits. By 1997, when the trees yielded a stable output, his family applied the grafting technique to spread this rare longan variety. Currently, his family has about 100 trees of this variety which has branded "Bui Tam Longan”.

In 2022, this longan variety was certified by the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, allowing the family to harvest a maximum of 1,000 to 1,500 grafting units per year. Tam, as head of the veterans' society of Ne Chau village, gathered members with similar interests to share longan growing experiences and find solutions to preserve and develop this ancient longan variety. To realise his idea, in early 2022, Tam bought 1,000 young longan trees and grafted them with the ancient longan variety to give to all the society’s members. The Ne Chau longan production cooperative in Hong Nam commune, Hung Yen City, currently has 18 hectares of longan, including over 6 ha of specialty longan varieties, which are priced higher than average but still highly favoured by consumers. According to Bui Xuan Su, vice director of the cooperative, the establishment always encourages its members to expand the cultivation area to preserve and develop these valuable longan varieties. Hung Yen is home to 5,000 ha of longan cultivation land, including about 1,000 ha of the ancient and "rock sugar" varieties, concentrating in Hung Yen city and the district of An Thi, Kim Dong, Tien Lu, and Khoai Chau. According to Nguyen Thi Thu from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, there are currently about 50 longan genetic sources in the province, with over 40 being of local. The provincial People's Committee issued a decision approving a project to preserve and develop specialty longan and lychee cultivation areas in 2020 – 2025 period, with a vision to 2030, aiming to conserve the gene resources of these fruits, while ensuring the efficient and sustainable use of the province's specialty crop resources and increasing farmers' incomes. /.