Ha Tinh: More attention needed to develop citrus trees sustainably

On November 24 Le Quoc Doanh Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) inspected the development and trade promotion of citrus fruits in general and oranges in particular in Ha Tinh province.

There are now 7,900 hectares in Ha Tinh province under orange trees concentrated in the four districts of Huong Khe, Vu Quang, Huong Son and Can Loc of which 5,600 hectares are productive land including 1,657 hectares meeting VietGAP standards with average yield of 11.7 tons per hectare. Ha Tinh’ total orange production is expected to reach over 65,000 tons in 2021.

2021 is the second year Ha Tinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has implement organic practices on three hectares of orangev trees in Duc Linh commune (Vu Quang district ) and Loc Yen commune (Huong Khe district).

In recent years, Ha Tinh Provincial People’s Committee has boosted the digital transformation in agriculture. The province has developed an orange origin tracing system at website https://camhatinh.gov.vn to provide transparent information to consumers.  More than 1,600 farm households and 278 cooperatives/groups joined the system.

The portal has helped shoppers look up information about the fruits including: relevant certifications, production records, transport and trading records and ecosystem as well.

The system following national and GS1 standards has also  helped local citrus growers comprehensively manage the entire production process from growing, fertilizing, controlling pests and diseases, taking care of the trees, harvesting to transporting, processing, packaging and distributing.

As for shoppers, they can track the fruits by scanning a code to access to all information on the origin such as orchard name and location, cultivation conditions and other details.

Bui Xuan Vinh and Bui Xuan Hai have a 30-hectare orange orchard in Yen Binh village, Loc Yen commune (Huong Khe district). They can earn a profit of around VND 500 million per year from this orchard. Their fruits meet the standard of VietGAP and are stamped with the traceability code of the orchard. As long as the shoppers have a smartphone they can scan QR code to know the origin of the fruits being offered to them at retail sale.

The oranges grown in the orchard of Vinh and Hai have been not only sold locally but also put up for sale in the big cities such as Vinh  (Nghe An province), Hanoi and Danang.

Dang Ngoc Son, Vice Chairman of Ha Tinh Provincial People’s Committee said the competent authorities of the province have made a plan to organize trade promotions events to boost the consumption of oranges along with Ha Tinh’s OCOP products in 2021. The province has sent an official letter to the relevant ministries, provinces and retail corporations and big supper markets across the country to promote the cooperation and boost the consumption of oranges.

Ha Tinh Department of Industry and Trade has taken a leading role in connecting with Domestic Market Department under the MoIT, Masan group (Vinmart), Coopmart to organize farm tours in orange orchards in the area. Besides, the department arranged training courses, trade promotion events to connect Ha Tinh oranges to e-commerce platforms such as Voso, Postmart. Additionally, various events and conferences have been held to promote Ha Tinh oranges nationwide in 2021.

Visiting the Khe May orange growing area, Phuc Trach grapefruit nursery in Huong Khe district and Truong Bat Center for Plant Testing, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh emphasized the importance and the need of the investment in preserving and developing qualified citrus varieties.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh, Ha Tinh not only has high-quality orange varieties but also has successfully developed the concentrated orange-growing areas and effectively connected growers with supermarkets and e-commerce platforms,

“This is a premise to synchronously apply the digital transformation to orange-growing areas across the province. To do so, the Agricultural Science Institute of Northern Central Vietnam should work with Ha Tinh competent agencies and specialized units under the MARD to evaluate the pilot model of citrus fruit development in Ha Tinh and learn from this model. The MARD will give all the support needed,” said Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh.