Hanoi (VNA)ꦿ – The 2016 Luc Ngan - Bac Giang Lychee Week in Hanoi kicked off at the Big C Thang Long Supermarket on June 24 and will run through June 30.

It was jointly organised by the provincial Industry and Trade Department, Luc Ngan District’s People’s Committee, Hanoi’s Industry and Trade Department, Big C Supermarket and Hanoi Trade Corporation (Hapro). The event aims to get the northern province of Bac Giang’s farm produce to Hanoi consumers more easily during 2016-20. The lychees are displayed with packing labels showing origin information at 10 booths at the event. Prices run from 35,000 VND to 45,000 VND per kilogramme. Bac Giang lychees are cultivated in a concentrated lychee-growing area. VietGAP and GlobalGAP cultivation standards are applied, ensuring clean produce that meets food safety and hygiene requirements, according to Tran Quang Tan, Director of the Bac Giang’s Industry and Trade Department, who spoke at the opening ceremony. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Hanoi’s Industry and Trade Department, said the event created opportunities for lychee businesses to meet and seek partners to sign trade contracts and boost lychee consumption. A lychee consumption signing ceremony between Luc Ngan District’s People’s Committee and six supermarkets and wholesale markets in Hanoi also took place at the event. Guillaume Sénéclauze, General Director of Big C Vietnam, said Big C was willing to support Vietnamese farm produce consumption in general and lychee consumption in particular. “We expect lychee consumption at Big C will increase by more than 30 percent year-on-year in our supermarket chain this year”, the director said at the event. Right after the launch of the Bac Giang Lychee Week in Hanoi late last week, the lychees had been attracting a lot of attention from capital citizens and consumption had spiked, a Big C representative told Vietnam News on June 27. “At Big C supermarkets in Hanoi, we have consumed more than 15 tonnes of fresh lychees granted VietGAP and GlobalGAP certificates in just the last three days”, the representative added. From this year’s crop, Bac Giang’s total lychee production was estimated to reach 130,000 tonnes, including 59,450 tonnes meeting VietGap standards. So far, 54,200 tonnes, or 39 percent of the total lychee crop, have been harvested. Luc Ngan District, the largest “thieu” lychee producer in Bac Giang, has 158ha of land dedicated to producing some 1,000 tonnes of lychees to the GlobalGap standard.-VNA