Customers buy lychees at a Co.opmart supermarket in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of Saigon Co.op

HCM CITY — Several large supermarket chains have pledged to support the consumption of lychees as the fruit enters the harvest season in the northern provinces of Bắc Giang and Hải Dương, the two biggest growers of the fruit in the country.

Last weekend specialised trucks started to transport fresh thiều lychees, a unique variety grown in Bắc Giang’s Lục Ngạn District, for distribution at nearly 1,000 outlets of Saigon Co.op across the country.

The volume this year will be 20 per cent higher than last year.

A spokesperson for Saigon Co.op said the retailer has bought fresh lychees directly from Lục Ngạn and Hải Dương Province’s Thanh Hà District, all meeting VietGap quality or safe fruit certification standards.

This year Saigon Co.op has begun selling some agricultural products, including thiều lychees, online.

Customers can order them using MoMo e-wallet, and the supermarket will deliver home.

Besides fresh lychees, canned lychees that can be kept for a long time are also available at Co.opmart, Co.opXtra and Co.op Food at VNĐ40,000 (US$1.7).

Also last weekend Central Retail transported fresh thiều lychees grown in Lục Ngạn District in five 20-feet containers to its Big C and Go! supermarkets across the country for consumption and export to Thailand.

Nguyễn Thị Phương, deputy general director of Central Retail Group in Việt Nam, said a purchase team has visited lychee farms in Lục Ngạn District to make purchasing and distribution plans.

A week of promotion will be held in Hà Nội to sell the fruit at 38 Big C and Go! stores across the country, she said.

This year Big C and Go! are expected to buy around 1,000 tonnes, three times the volume they bought last year.

Central Retail will display the fruit at the best locations in its stores and offer a series of special promotions.

Central Retail will continue to export Lục Ngạn lychees to Thailand and display them on the shelves of Tops and Central Food Hall hypermarkets (Central Group’s food retail chain) to introduce the fruit to consumers in Bangkok.

In addition to Saigon Co.op and Central Retail, the two provinces are also in touch with other retailers such as Aeon, MM Mega Market, Lotte Mart, Vinmart, and Hapro, agricultural product wholesale markets across the country and fruit processing plants to help farmers sell their lychees.

This year the fruit was grown on a total area of 28,100ha in Bắc Giang Province and the output has risen by 10,000 tonnes this year to 160,000 tonnes.

Deputy Director of Bắc Giang Province’s Department of Industrial and Trade, Phạm Công Toản, said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year the province plans to promote its lychees mostly in the domestic market, and only 40 per cent would be exported.

According to the Hải Dương Province Department of Industry and Trade, the output is 55,000 tonnes this year, double that of last year. — VNS