Harvesting mango in Đồng Tháp Province’s Cao Lãnh City. – VNA/VNS Photo Nguyễn Văn Trí

ĐỒNG THÁP – The Đồng Tháp Province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has granted a production unit code for 133 fruit-growing areas that qualify to produce fruit for export.

Most of the code-granted areas, which cover 7,000ha, grow mango, longan, dragon fruit, jackfruit and rambutan.

To be granted the production unit code, each fruit growing area has a minimum area of 10ha, grows one variety of fruit, and grows fruit under Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) standards or other equivalent standards.

Code-granted areas have to meet many other requirements, including keeping a cultivation diary for traceability and following pesticide use regulations.

Nguyễn Phước Thiện, director of the department, said of the province’s fruit growing areas with the code, more than 5,000ha area are for export to mainland China and the remaining for export to the US, Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the EU and Taiwan.

Farmers in the province who plant fruits in code-granted areas have higher profits than farmers who grow the same fruits under normal farming methods.

In Châu Thành District, which has the largest longan growing area in the province, farmers who plant the fruit in code-granted areas have a yield of 17 – 25 tonnes per ha a year and a profit of VNĐ400 million (US$17,000) per ha a year, VNĐ100 million ($4,300) higher than longan planted under normal methods.

Đồng Tháp has 16 longan growing areas with a total of 634ha that have been granted the code.

The province, which is the largest mango producer in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta, has 77 mango growing areas on a total area of 4,000ha that have been granted the code.

Mango planted in code-granted areas sell for VNĐ5,000 - 10,000 a kilogramme more than mango planted under normal farming methods.

The province has more than 9,650ha of mango with an annual output of nearly 127,000 tonnes. Most of the province’s mangoes are sold domestically and a small amount is exported.

The province’s mangoes are exported to many markets, including the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore and Russia.

This year, the province targets increasing its mango growing area to 10,000ha with an annual output of 140,000 tonnes.

The province has been granted geographical indication certification for its Cao Lãnh mangoes grown in Cao Lãnh City and Cao Lãnh District. – VNS