(VNF) - The northern province of Hai Duong will organise the Thanh Ha Lychee Festival, the first of its kind, in a bid to promote the values and consumption of the fruit, in late May this year.

Hai Duong is expected to harvest around 55,000 – 60,000 tonnes of lychees during this season. (Illustrative image)

The festival is estimated to cost approximately VND 1.4 billion (USD 61,600), according to the Hai Duong provincial Department of Industry and Trade.

Director of Hai Duong provincial Department of Industry and Trade Vu Thi Kim Phuong said that the festival will create a venue to connect farmers with farm producers, distributors and exporters and help to promote the signing of consumption contracts between local farmers and enterprises.

Within the framework of the festival, the planning of an eco-tourism resort along the Huong River will also be introduced to visitors, in addition to the organisation of field trips to lychee growing regions that meet the VietGAP standards and requirements for export to the U.S.

The festival will gather roughly 600 guests, including 200 representatives from agriculture enterprises, exporters, and cooperatives, as well as tourism enterprises.

The event is expected to introduce and boost the values of lychees in order to promote the consumption of the fruit and raise the awareness of protecting and developing the Thanh Ha lychee brand.

On the occasion, Hai Duong province will introduce and promote the values of its agricultural products and tourism to consumers and investors at home and abroad.

BUMPER CROP THIS YEAR

Thanh Ha District, for example, is one of Vietnam’s most famous regions for growing lychee that ripen around May and early July. In fact, the fruit is considered to have originated from this area.

Approximately 15,000-18,000 tonnes of this season’s first crop of lychees will be picked in the northern province of Hai Duong in early May this year to supply the market, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).

The DARD said that the rate of flowering and matured fruit is estimated to reach more than 95 per cent, making this year’s bumper crop of lychees the biggest of the past five years.

Deputy Director of the DARD Vu Thi Ha said that Hai Duong is expected to harvest 55,000 - 60,000 tonnes of lychees this year, including 15,000 - 18,000 tonnes of early matured fruit with the focus in Thanh Ha and Chi Linh districts.

"It is scheduled that the extremely early maturing lychees of Hai Duong will be picked from May 5 this year and the early maturing lychees are expected to be picked from May 15^th-25^th, while the remaining harvest is anticipated to fall on May 20^th-June 20^th this year," Ha added.

Notably, Hai Duong has built 13 areas which meet the standards of growing lychees for export to the U.S., Australia, and the EU, with a total area of more than 131.6 ha, which can produce a total output of about 1,000 tonnes of lychees, including 187ha with a capacity of 1,500 tonnes meeting VietGAP standards./.

VNF