A durian orchard in Tiền Giang Province’s Cai Lậy District. The province is getting codes for growing fruits to increase exports. – VNA/VNS Photo Minh Trí

TIỀN GIANG – Tiền Giang Province is making great efforts to expand its fruit growing areas that have production codes to serve exports.

The country’s largest fruit producing province has 83,000ha under various fruits, including 11 speciality kinds such as durian, dragon fruit, mango, and jackfruit.

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province now has 284 fruit growing areas with a total of 20,440ha that have production codes, according to its Plant Cultivation and Protection Sub-department.

These areas grow jackfruit, dragon fruit, mango, milk apple, durian, and watermelon.

To get the codes, farmers must adopt Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) or other equivalent standards.

The province proactively helps them secure the codes for their fruits.

It instructs them to grow fruits to high quality standards, including VietGAP and GlobalGAP.

Võ Văn Men, head of the sub-department, said his agency advocates that farmers only use pesticides allowed by the Plant Cultivation and Protection Department.

Farmers should prioritise using bioproducts to grow fruits and manage pests, he said.

The province aims to have 324 durian growing areas covering a total of 15,000ha with codes next year compared to 72 areas with 2,600ha now.

Durian and dragon fruit are among its key fruit exports.

It has nearly 8,600ha under dragon fruit for export, mostly in Chợ Gạo, Gò Công Tây and Gò Công Đông districts.

Chợ Gạo, the province’s largest grower, has 101 areas covering 5,932ha with the codes.

Nguyễn Thị Kim Hằng, head of its Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development, said her agency has instructed farmers in specialised dragon fruit growing areas to register for the code, and officials have instructed them to strictly follow cultivating processes to meet requirements.

The district encourages farmers to join co-operatives and co-operative groups and grow the fruits to VietGAP or GlobalGAP standards.

The Hưng Thịnh Phát Clean Agriculture Co-operative in Qươn Long Commune has 39 members who grow dragon fruit on 132ha to VietGAP or GlobalGAP standards.

It has built refrigerated warehouses and processing facilities to package the fruit for export.

Nguyễn Trung Quý, its chairman, said it has received six growing codes for export to the US, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

It is registering codes now to export to South Korea and Japan, he said.

Its dragon fruit has been recognised as a four-star product under the national “One Commune – One Product” programme.

Chợ Gạo is soliciting investment in making products from the fruit to increase outlets for farmers.

Its 11 dragon fruit co-operatives have strengthened linkages with companies to export the fruit even to highly demanding markets. – VNS