HÀ NỘI — Amid the glowing early-summer sunshine, the ripe early-season Tân Yên lychees, the pride of the Bắc Giang midlands, are entering their peak harvest, poised to embark on journeys of thousands of kilometres to premium markets such as Japan, Europe, the United States and Australia.

In Phúc Hòa Commune, Tân Yên District, the heart of Bắc Giang’s early lychee zone, a conference on trade promotion and cooperation for the 2025 early lychee crop was held recently, attended by provincial officials, dozens of distribution enterprises, e-commerce platforms and logistics providers.

This year, Tân Yên District is cultivating 1,375 hectares of lychee, of which 1,250 hectares are dedicated to the early-ripening variety, with an estimated output of around 15,000 tonnes. Notably, 900 hectares meet food safety standards, including 455 hectares certified with VietGAP and GlobalGAP. The district has also secured 33 planting area codes for export, meeting strict requirements from demanding markets such as Japan, the EU, Thailand and Australia.

The early lychee harvest began at the end of May and is expected to conclude by mid-June. Despite unfavourable weather conditions, Nguyễn Huy Ngọc, vice chairman of Tân Yên District People’s Committee, affirmed that thanks to generations of farming experience, the lychees this year offered outstanding quality, meeting export standards, ensuring food safety, and offering traceability, winning the trust of both domestic and international consumers.

To support sales, the district had proactively rolled out comprehensive logistics services, including foam boxes, ice, environmental sanitation, weighing and collection points, as well as security and power supply for production.

Alongside the domestic market, Tân Yên is pushing for sustainable exports through leading agricultural trading firms.

Nguyễn Đức Hưng, director of Toàn Cầu Food Import-Export JSC, an exporter to Japan, Europe, the US and Australia, said the company was working with local cooperatives in Tân Yên to establish GlobalGAP-certified growing areas, carry out on-site pre-processing and packaging, assist with planting code registration, and use refrigerated containers to ensure product quality for export.

 

Hưng said: “International consumers not only demand delicious fruit, but also expect food safety, transparency, and a sustainable story behind every product. We are ready to scale up our purchases of Tân Yên lychees this year to fulfil large orders to Japan, the US and Australia.”

In addition to boosting sales, Tân Yên is also promoting agro-tourism and community-based tourism linked to its lychee orchards. Over 30 memoranda of understanding have been signed for lychee production and sales, alongside five cooperation agreements to develop eco-tourism routes and destinations in the district.

To further elevate the Tân Yên early lychee brand, La Văn Nam, deputy director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, urged local authorities to intensify communication about product quality, strictly manage harvesting and storage processes, and ensure transportation, packaging and manpower are ready for the harvest season.

After the harvest, farmers should be guided in proper care techniques to expand VietGAP and GlobalGAP-certified areas, while efforts should also be made to establish a geographical indication for Tân Yên lychees.

Thanks to proactive and methodical production–consumption linkages, and increasingly improved quality, Tân Yên's early lychees are not only a source of pride for the people of Bắc Giang, but are also becoming a distinguished representative of Vietnamese agricultural exports on the global stage. — VNS