People harvest early season cashew in Bù Gia Mập District in Bình Phước Province. — VNA Photo

BÌNH PHƯỚC — The early days of lunar year mark the beginning of cashew harvest in the south-eastern province of Bình Phước.

Bình Phước Province is known as the capital of cashews, and has fertile red basalt soil that helps cashew plants grow well and have delicious quality.

In the border district of Bù Gia Mập, which has a large area under the crop in the province, the harvest has begun.

Điểu Thân of Phú Nghĩa Commune said his family's cashew farm already had ripe fruits before the Tết holidays, and after harvesting his family also helped pick on other farms to earn an extra income.

Hùng Lộc's family in Đức Hạnh Commune has been harvesting its cashew farm since February 15.

It owns over four hectares of cashew trees aged 15-25 years and another hectare of grafted cashew trees aged five years old, both ready for harvest.

Hùng said: "Since this is the beginning of the season, there are relatively few fruits. If the weather remains favorable in early March, most of the cashew will ripen."

But cashew prices are lower than in previous years.

According to Điểu Hồng Khanh, another farmer in Đức Hạnh, his family harvested over 200kg of fresh cashew nuts but only managed to sell them for around VNĐ24,500 (US$1) per kilogramme compared to over VNĐ26,000 last year.

Binh Phước has over 152,000ha under cashew, or nearly 50 per cent of the country’s total area.

It also has over1,400 cashew processing facilities that provide regular employment to more than 50,000 local and non-local workers.

Cashew farming is concentrated in the districts of Bù Đăng, Bù Gia Mập, Phú Riềng, and Đồng Phú. — VNS