Hung Yen’s Trung lychee has a lot of potentials to expand its consumption market

Every year, the province's total food production reaches about 1.1 million tons/year; including such key products as: Longans, oranges, bananas, pork, chicken, seafood... To date, in the whole province there are 270 units certified to meet VietGAP standards with an area of 3000 hectares and an output of about 85 thousand tons of vegetables, fruits, meat, fish of all kinds and over 53.3 million eggs.

To implement the plan to transform the province's crop structure, up to now, the whole province has converted nearly 14 thousand hectares to grow fruit trees, including such key crops as: Longan currently covers nearly 5 thousand hectares, annual output reaches 45 - 50 thousand tons. The longans area meeting VietGAP standards is more than 1.3 thousand hectares, providing high quality products. The whole province currently has 11 growing areas that have been granted export area codes, including 2 longans areas that have been granted export codes to the US market, 13 growing areas have been granted export codes to China, and 4 areas have been granted a geographical indication certificate. The market for fresh longan fruit is mainly consumed domestically through channels such as gift items, fresh stores, supermarkets, markets and exported to some markets such as the US, Singapore, China...

For lychee production and consumption, the whole province currently grows nearly 1.5 thousand hectares of lychees. To date, there are 117 hectares of lychee grown intensively according to VietGAP process, managed integrated pest; monitored and managed of worms in lychees... thereby achieving higher quality and ensuring food hygiene and safety. The lychee consumption market is still mainly domestical.

Along with longan, lychee is the main and typical product of the province, in recent years, fruit trees such as oranges, grapefruits, and bananas have expanded in area and improved product quality. Currently, the area of citrus trees in the province is about 3,800 hectares, with annual output estimated at 40,000 - 45,000 tons; of which the production area meeting VietGAP standards is currently 550 hectares, with an estimated output of 8,500 tons. The current banana area is 2,400 hectares, the output in 2022 is estimated to reach 70,850 tons; of which 409 hectares are certified to meet VietGAP standards, the output is estimated to reach at 17,468 tons. Khoai Chau - Hung Yen King Kong banana was registered a trademark in 2015. The banana consumption market is widespread throughout the country and exported to a number of markets such as China, Korea, Russian Federation... with an annual export output of about 35,000 tons... Other agricultural products such as: lotus seeds, longans, rice, vegetables, tubers, fresh fruits, livestock products, seafood... are increasingly expanding and focuses on quality and food safety, so it is highly appreciated by domestic consumers and has great potential for export.

Production and consumption of key agricultural products in the province have faced many difficulties in recent times such as broken supply chains, escalating prices, and high prices of input materials (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides), decreased purchasing power, product prices do not increase... Agricultural products of Vietnam in general and Hung Yen province in particular, do not have a production strategy associated with products processing and consumption. Currently, most of the cooperatives, people still produce based on experience, not paying much attention to the market and consumers. Agricultural product production and consumption chains have initially been formed with the participation of many actors but lack of cooperation and sustainable linkages from all sides (buyer and seller). The classification, preservation, and packaging of products have not been closely inspected and monitored; production and processing entities have not paid attention to packaging, labels, origin of goods, product branding... The application of new technical advances in production is still limited; agricultural production and business establishments are heavily dependent on a number of major export markets such as China... but have not expanded to other high-end markets such as countries in the European Union, the US..., which results to a situation when China closes its borders, agricultural products are congested and could not be consumed...

Comrade Do Minh Tuan, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: To improve production efficiency and beef up products consumption, in the coming time, the province's Agriculture and Rural Development sector will focus on implementing such a number of tasks, solutions as: Continue to disseminate information on regulations on domestic agricultural product consumption and export markets. To regularly provide information about trade promotion and trade connection programs; state support programs; promotion methods, ability to penetrate and meet market needs; the information about partners, import-export businesses, and trade promotion agencies of countries to facilitate the consumption of agricultural products in the province. To focus on consulting and supporting labels, product packaging, and self-declaration of product quality; expand distribution channels through online sales, on e-commerce sites... To beef up branding and product packaging; continue to expand software applications and stamps to trace the origin of agricultural products to protect brands, affirm the quality and reputation of Hung Yen agricultural products with consumers.

Along with that, the Department strengthens coordination to inspect and control goods sources, avoiding fraud, mixing counterfeit and poor quality goods that affect the brand of the province's agricultural products. To continue to carry out mechanisms and policies to support organizations and individuals producing and trading agricultural - forestry - fishery products to improve production and consumption conditions for products circulating in the market. To accelerate development along the commodity chain, encourage the development of cooperative groups and cooperatives associated with the OCOP program.