Purple longan is in high demand during Tet holiday

Mr. Tran Van Huy in Ke Sach district, Soc Trang, who brought purple longan to grow in Vietnam, said that this year his whole garden has nearly 100 kg of fruit, but it was ordered two months ago.

"I sell each kilo for 100,000 VND but it has all been booked by neighbors and relatives. Some customers from far away called to ask to buy at a higher price but I refused," Mr. Huy said. For more than a month now, many traders have asked to buy all the longan in the garden but he has not sold even though they offered to pay up to 150,000 VND per kilo.

According to Mr. Huy, his garden has more than 40 trees that are bearing fruit, but because they are focusing on grafting branches, the number of fruits is not much. In addition, there was a lot of rain in the last months of the year, so the trees bear little fruit, down 70% compared to last year, so this year the goods are quite scarce.

"This type of tree is eye-catching for Tet so customers really like it. However, growing it for commercial purposes is not easy. Grafted trees do not produce much fruit, and the quantity of grafted trees supplied to the market each year is small," said Mr. Huy.

In fact, recently a group of Chinese tourists came to visit the garden and wanted to buy some purple longan to take home, but he refused to sell. Previously, many Taiwanese and Thai tourists also came to visit and wanted to buy fruit and seedlings, but he also refused because he did not want to sell to foreigners.

More than ten years ago, Mr. Huy accidentally discovered a longan tree in the garden sprouting a strange branch, with purple leaves and fruit. Finding it strange, Mr. Huy grafted the branch and planted it, and as a result, the tree grew well, producing longan fruit with a beautiful purple color.

Although discovered a long time ago, this tree is still not popular. To produce a lot of fruit, growers need to take care of it for at least 3 years. Therefore, local authorities advise people not to plant purple longan in large quantities. When supply exceeds demand, their value will decrease, while the investment capital is high.

A few months ago, a working group from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development came to survey and collect information, aiming to protect this purple longan variety.