A conference to seek buyers of agricultural products and launch the harvest of longan for export in 2021 was jointly held on Thursday by the departments of Agricultural and Rural Development and Industry and Trade, and the authority of Chi Linh City of the northern province of Hai Duong.

Chi Linh City has 740ha under longan with an estimated output of 4,000 tonnes, of which 52ha have been granted cultivation area codes for export to the European Union (EU), Singapore, the US, Australia, and New Zealand.

A representative of FUSA Organic Agriculture Joint Stock Company said that the firm will start to purchase and process longan for exporting to Europe in the next few days.

The company has shipped a number of batches of longan to the UK, France, and the Netherlands. It expects to export between 20-30 tonnes of Chi Linh longan to 300 supermarkets in the UK and EU member countries in 2021.

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the Chi Linh City authority has worked to connect with export businesses, food stores, supermarkets, and e-commerce platforms to sell longan. Thanks to the efforts, local longan has become available on the e-commerce platform voso.vn of Viettel Post at a price of VND93,000 (US$2.2) per 3kg.

Planting fruit trees is one of the advantages of Chi Linh District, with some typical fruits such as longan, litchi, custard apple, red flesh dragon fruit, and orange. Chi Linh longan has been granted a collective trademark.

The locality plans to develop 10 products meeting at least the three-star standards of the “One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) programme in 2021. — VNS