Son La Longan and Safe Farm Produce Week 2019 launched in Hanoi

A customer buys longan at Big C Thang Long in Ha Noi. The “Son La Longan and Safe Farm Produce Week 2019” will run until July 23. - VNS Photo Mai Huong

The statement was made by Vu Duc Thuan, deputy director of the Son La Province’s Department of Planning and Investment at the launch of the ‘Son La Longan and Safe Farm Produce Week 2019’ at Big C Thang Long on Friday.

This is the second year the event has been organised by the provincial People’s Committee and Big C Thang Long (of the Central Group Vietnam) to promote the province’s agricultural products, with longan being the key fruit to Ha Noi and other neighbouring localities’ customers.

This year, 21 local enterprises with 30 booths are displaying their products, many of them have obtained safe food standards such as VietGap and GlobalGap including longan, custard apple, mango, passion fruit, avocado, banana, red flesh dragon fruit and other farm produce.

Thuan said since last year, the province had built a trade promotion campaign to introduce Son La’s safe agricultural products which had seen positive results.

“More people know about the province’s products and the trade promotion activities have stimulated concentrated production in the province and kept the prices stable,” Thuan told Viet Nam News, adding that total areas of fruit trees in the region doubled last year, reaching more than 64,000 hectares in 2019.

Especially, awareness of local farmers about the brand has changed significantly, Thuan said, adding that now farmers have paid attention to fruit preservation, packaging and origin traceability which meets export standards to the EU and China.

Most of the products in the Son La Longan and Safe Farm Produce Week 2019 could be traced in terms of origin of production, he said.

The total area of longan cultivation in the province increased to more than 15,000 hectares this year, a 2.5-fold increase compared to 2015, with output expected at 73,000 tonnes. Longan exports this year is estimated at nearly 10,000 tonnes (fresh and processed fruit) worth about US$10.6 million.

Besides longan, the province has cooperated with Big C to organise many weekly trade activities to promote other agricultural products such as strawberry, plum, mango and Da river fish. Sales of the province’s agricultural products at Big C achieved a stunning growth rate of 20 times, data of the supermarket chain showed.

Thuan said Son La Province was focusing on developing agricultural cooperatives, helping farmers expand fruit gardens, product design, packaging and product brand promotion.

Apart from Big C, the province also introduced their products in other modern retail chains including Lotte, Hapro and Co-opmart, he said.

The “Son La Longan and Safe Farm Produce Week 2019” will run in Big C Thang Long until July 23.