Dong Thanh orange orchard (Yen Thanh) begins harvest season
There are still nearly 2 months to go until Lunar New Year, but at this time, the orange hills in Dong Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district are already bright yellow. People have started to harvest the oranges after 1 year of care.
Early morning, in the family's lush, fruit-laden orange garden Mr. Truong Van Bien in Dong Trung hamlet, Dong Thanh commune has been bustling with traders coming to buy. Mr. Bien said: "The orange garden will start harvesting from now until Lunar New Year, we usually choose ripe oranges, with peak sweetness to harvest first.
The product is divided into 2 types, type 1 oranges are sold at 45,000 VND/kg, type 2 oranges are priced at 35,000 VND/kg, the price is higher than previous years. At this time, customers from many places call to order, so workers have to harvest every day.
It is known that Mr. Bien's family's orange garden has an area of 4.8 hectares, of which 80% are Xa Doai oranges with golden hearts, 20% are Van Du oranges, it is estimated that this crop will yield over 20 tons of fruit/hectare.
To have a high-yield, high-quality orange garden, Mr. Bien asked experts from the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences for advice on care techniques. In addition to care according to VietGAP procedures, Mr. Bien also uses hot peppers, garlic, ginger... to mix into biological products to make orange products safe to use.
Nearby is the owner of Dai Viet orange garden. The owner of this orange farm said that his family's orange hill has an area of over 10 hectares, and has been harvesting for over a week now. Traders from all over come to buy, selling 1-2 tons of oranges each day, with the peak harvest expected to be 4-5 tons, requiring dozens of people to pick oranges continuously for many days to sell them to the market.
“This year the yield has decreased due to the recent rains, causing many oranges to fall off. However, it is estimated that at the end of the harvest, there will be over 100 tons of oranges, sold for over 3 billion VND, and after deducting expenses, the profit is over 1.6 billion VND,” said the owner of Dai Viet orange garden.
Mr. Le Van Minh - a trader specializing in purchasing oranges in Dien Chau district shared: The orange area of Dong Thanh commune is very high quality, has a characteristic aroma, sweet and cool taste, beautiful appearance, and is favored by customers near and far. Every day I purchase 4-6 tons of Dong Thanh oranges to supply to the markets of the Northern provinces and Vinh city.
Mr. Ngo Van Tuan - Chairman of Dong Thanh Commune People's Committee said: The whole commune currently has more than 125 hectares of Vinh oranges, mainly delicious orange varieties such as Xa Doai long vang, Van Du... Of these, over 70 hectares of oranges have been granted VietGAP standard certificates.
Dong Thanh oranges are known to many customers because of their high quality. Mainly, traders from all over the province come to buy them to sell in the northern and southern provinces. Up to this point, the whole commune has harvested about 200 tons of oranges.
Although the harvest was not as good as in previous years due to the weather, this year the price was good. The entire Dong Thanh commune estimated to harvest 1,300 tons of oranges, bringing in over 42 billion VND in revenue. The commune is encouraging people to use biological products instead of pesticides to create "clean orange" products that are safe for consumers.
Oranges are becoming the main crop helping Dong Thanh people “change their skin”. Many households here have revenue up to billions of VND/year from orange trees.
In the coming time, the commune will continue to change the crop structure, expand the orange growing area to create a specialized orange growing area according to VietGAP standards for sustainable development.
