Currently, farmers in durian growing areas in Tien Giang province are starting to harvest the off-season crop, which is expected to last until the upcoming Lunar New Year. Durian prices are also increasing sharply at this time.

Currently, Ri6 durian is purchased by traders at 135,000 - 140,000 VND/kg, an increase of about 30% compared to last month. With an average yield of 20 - 25 tons/ha, each hectare harvested at the right time now, after deducting costs, farmers earn a profit of no less than several billion VND.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu planted 2,000 m2 of durian in Cam Son commune, Cai Lay district, and said that although durian has a good price, this year's off-season weather and hydrology have been complicated, with severe drought in the dry season and prolonged storms in the rainy season, so many farmers have lost their crops because the trees do not flower, and if they do flower, it is difficult to set fruit, and the yield is greatly reduced.

Accordingly, usually, around April or May every year, farmers start to spread the crop and the durian garden will be harvested from November onwards. At this time, durian has a good price, and farmers earn high profits.

In addition, due to the impact of drought in the recent dry season, durian gardens were exhausted, so many households cut the crop without treating it but instead took care of it to recover in preparation for the next crop in 2025. Low and limited supply while domestic and export market demand is large is also one of the reasons for the sharp increase in durian prices during the off-season in Tien Giang.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tien Giang province, durian is one of the specialty fruits with high economic value, an important source of agricultural exports of the locality.

The whole province has over 22,000 hectares of durian, concentrated in districts and towns in the western flood control area: Cai Lay, Cai Be, Cai Lay town, Chau Thanh... with an annual output of about 440,000 tons of fruit.

To further promote the strengths of specialty crops, the locality focuses on transferring intensive farming techniques, encouraging farmers to apply synchronous scientific measures to achieve high productivity and output. In particular, it is necessary to spread the harvest to the off-season, avoiding harvesting in the main season to reduce the risk of a bumper crop, market congestion, and price loss.

At the same time, in an effort to take advantage of the opportunity for durian to be officially exported to China and other markets, Tien Giang is interested in building growing area codes and packaging facility codes to serve the official export of durian to the Chinese market as well as other countries.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tien Giang province, Tran Hoang Nhat Nam, the whole province currently has 409 fruit growing areas for export with a total area of ​​over 25,000 hectares; of which there are 155 durian growing area codes with a total area of ​​nearly 7,000 hectares, creating an agricultural raw material area granted official export to China.

Thanks to favorable durian export and stable output, localities in the flood control area of ​​Tien Giang province, which have built large concentrated durian growing areas, are increasingly prosperous, well-off and have successfully built new rural areas. Typically, Cai Lay district, Cai Lay town, and Cai Be district in the western flood control area have been recognized for completing the goal of building new rural areas.

In particular, Long Khanh commune (Cai Lay town) and Cam Son (Cai Lay district) in January 2024 have just announced the successful launch of model new rural communes. These are localities that, thanks to the transformation towards "living with floods", have built durian growing areas with large commodity output, making important contributions to promoting socio-economic development and innovation in agriculture - farmers - rural areas in the locality.

Source: Kinh Te Nong Thon Newspaper