Tien Giang (VNS/VNA) - Farmers in Tien Giang province, the country’s largest fruitproducer, have planted 1,000ha of new fruit plants so far this year, accordingto the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Mekong Deltaprovince has harvested a total of more than 1.3 million tonnes of fruits in thefirst nine months of the year, meeting 85 percent of the province’s target forthis year.

In recent years, theprovince has encouraged farmers to turn rice or other crop farming areasaffected by drought and saltwater intrusion to grow specialty fruits.

The province hasestablished concentrated areas for growing specialty fruits with high commercialvalue, according to Cao Van Hoa, Director of the provincial Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development.

They include 15,000ha ofpineapple in Tan Phuoc district, 9,000ha of durian in flood-prone districtsupstream the Tien River, and 5,000ha of dragon fruit in eastern districts.

In the concentratedfruit growing areas, farmers have used quality fruit seedlings and advancedfarming techniques to grow fruits.

Farmers have alsoapplied techniques to produce off-season fruits to sell at higher prices. 

The rainy season is asuitable time for farmers to turn ineffective crop growing areas into new fruitorchards.

Therefore, the demand offruit seedlings is increasing, resulting in a high price for fruit seedlings,said the department.

Vo Van Chuot, who hasturned his 0.8ha rice field into a dragon fruit orchard in Cho Gao district’sPhu Kiet commune, said under the encouragement of local agricultural officials,he has switched to grow dragon fruits.

His orchard has anaverage yield of 16-20 tonnes a year, and he earned an annual profit of about 200million VND (8,500 USD).

Tien Giang is havingnearly 76,000ha of fruits, up 1.1 percent against the same period last year andaccounting for nearly 40 percent of the province’s total farming areas.

Local farmers areplanting more than 610ha of fruits under Vietnamese or global Good AgriculturalPractices (VietGAP or Global GAP) standards. Most of them are milk apple,mango, dragon fruit, durians, pineapple and sour sop.

The province hasencouraged farmers to set up cooperatives for growing large quantity of fruitsunder VietGAP or Global GAP standards to meet export demand.  

The province exportsabout 20 percent of its fruits to many countries. Its milk apples are exportedto the US.

It exported 30 millionUSD worth of fruits in the first half of the year, up 45 percent against thesame period last year, according to the provincial Department of Industry andTrade.-VNS/VNA