Nghia Dan guava is crispy and delicious but still loses value

(Baonghean.vn) - Nghia Dan guava is white, crispy, fragrant, and sweet, so it is chosen by many consumers. However, "sluggish" situation has occurred, especially during the main season.

5-6 years ago, Nghia Son commune was the first locality in Nghia Dan district to bring guava trees back to plant. Among them, the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong and Mr. Duong Quoc Oai (Xuan Nam hamlet) were the "initiators". Talking about the reason, Ms. Phuong said: At that time, my husband was working in Hanoi. After researching, he found a delicious and easy-to-grow guava variety there, so he went to the Plant Breeding Research Institute to buy the variety.

Ms. Phuong's family's guava garden (Nghia Son - Nghia Dan) bears fruit all year round. Photo: My Ha

Although it was his first time experimenting, he heard from the Research Institute that guava was an easy-to-grow plant, suitable for all types of soil, and loved the sun, so he boldly bought 200 Taiwanese guava seedlings to plant. After a year, the first season yielded a harvest and sold for a good price. In the following years, when the guava had grown well, it bore fruit all year round and brought in a fairly high income with an average price of about 20,000 VND/kg.

Ms. Phuong also said that guava trees are rarely affected by pests and diseases, so they are easy to care for. Her family's secret to having white, crispy, fragrant, sweet guavas is to use cloth (instead of plastic bags) to wrap the guavas from a young age. Therefore, whether it is sunny or rainy, the quality of the guavas will not be affected and they will avoid pests.

Currently, in Nghia Son commune, there are more than 100 other families growing guava with an area of ​​about 50 hectares. However, all of them are growing spontaneously. Because guava is especially suitable for basalt red soil, Nghia Dan guava, although newly appeared, has quickly been welcomed by the market. Throughout the district, the guava growing area is also increasing rapidly to Nghia Lam, Nghia Minh, Nghia Yen and many other communes with a scale of up to tens of hectares.

The secret to having delicious guava is to wrap it in a cloth bag to keep out insects. Photo: My Ha

However, although guava trees are really changing the lives of people in the area, when talking about the development direction, Mr. Nguyen Huu Quy - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee is very cautious because: Guava trees have the advantage of bearing fruit all year round but the price is still fluctuating, completely dependent on traders. There are times when guava costs up to 50,000 VND, but in the main season, sometimes it is only 8,000 - 9,000 VND/kg but no one buys. The difficulty here is that we do not have a stable consumption market and households are developing in a "everyone does it themselves" style, buying on a small scale.

Faced with this reality, the People's Committee of Nghia Dan district has recently organized a survey and found solutions for consumption. However, according to Mr. Lam Van Thang - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghia Dan district: the district still does not have a clear direction for development. Because, if we want to plan, we must have a link to consume products and build a clear brand. Meanwhile, we currently do not have an outlet for the products.

While the government has not yet decided to make guava a key crop, the guava acreage continues to grow on a household scale. And if there is no early warning, in just a few years the situation of “good harvest, low price” will easily recur and it is not impossible to exclude the case of guava being piled up but no one buying like some other fruits in recent times.

My Ha