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| Farmers transport lychees from Bac Giang Province to different areas. This year, farmers in Hai Duong Province’s Thanh Thuy Commune are preparing to make their first lychee shipment to the US. — VNA/VNS Photo Viet Hung |
HAI DUONG (VNS) — Farmers in Hai Duong Province’s Thanh Thuy Commune are preparing to export their first lychee crop to the US.
One of the busy lychee farmers, Nguyen Thi Lua, was among 87 households in the commune chosen for a lychee-export programme, under which agricultural officials would give her technical support, guidance and safe pesticides to use. She signed a commitment to follow the Vietnamese good agricultural practice (VietGAP) standards, which meant not using pesticides that contained banned substances. Her family has 19 lychee trees, which yielded 1.5 tonnes of lychee in 2014.
Thanh Thuy Commune has 25 hectares of lychee under the VietGap standards, including 10 hectares for export to the US. Hai Duong Province has 10,500 hectares of lychee, and uses the VietGAP standards for about 1,000 hectares each year.
Trinh Xuan Khoa, vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Thanh Thuy Commune, said most agricultural land in the commune had been converted into lychee farms.
Earlier this month, the US inspected and gave codes to two lychee cultivation areas totalling 20 hectares in Hai Duong, he said.
Vu Thi Ha, deputy head of the Hai Duong Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said six agricultural officials had been sent to the lychee fields to work with farmers and advise them on the production process.
This first lychee crop could pave the way for more opportunities to export products to the US.
“We believe that under the VietGap standards, the quality of our lychees will improve and we’ll be able to increase prices,” Lua said.
Growing lychee is the primary livelihood of farmers in the province. A number of efforts have been made to seek new markets for the product. — VNS
Đọt Chuối Non 
Dạ, thanks anh Hoành! Em have heard about 4 types of fruits from Viet Nam in USDA List of Approved Fruits and Vegetables which can be imported into US markets, including dragon fruit, longan, lychee, and rambutan. Em copy below, it seems to be quite hard for dragon fruit [require irradiated with the specified treatment , em heard of 400/1000], it’s so good that now lychee is on the highway!
Table 3-265 VIET NAM
Continental United States Only
Dragonfruit (fruit) (commercial consignments only into continental US only), T105-a-21
Litchi (fruit or cluster of fruit) (commercial consignments only; continental US except Florida), T105-a-21 2
Longan (fruit or cluster of fruit) (commercial consignments only; continental US except Florida), T105-a-21 3
Rambutan (fruit) (commercial consignments only into continental US only), T105-a-21
1 Consignments must be precleared and irradiated with the specified treatment in compliance with 7 CFR 305.9 in the country
of origin. The completed Preclearance Form 203 signed by the APHIS inspector in the country of origin confirming application
of irradiation treatment must be presented at the time of entry.
The consignments must also meet the following additional requirements:
For box, carton, and pallet labeling requirements, refer to Packaging Requirements for Irradiated Commodities.
Consignments must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the national plant protection organization
of the country of origin.
PROHIBITED ENTRY INTO FLORIDA: Cartons must be stamped “Not for importation into or distribution within FL.”
AUTHORIZED USERS ONLY: refer to the inspection procedure for precleared irradiated fruits and vegetables.
NOTE: Domestic irradiation: A bilateral agreement between APHIS and the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO)
of the exporting country is required before irradiation in the U.S. is an approved option. The NPPO must make a formal
request to APHIS for this option. Contact the NPPO at: http://www.ippc.int/countries/contactpoints/.
2 Consignments must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the NPPO of Viet Nam with two additional
declarations stating that: “The consignment was inspected and found free of Phytophthora litchi.” AND “The consignment
was produced and prepared for export in accordance with the requirements in the bilateral operational workplan.”
3 Consignments must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the NPPO of Viet Nam with an additional declaration
stating that “The consignment was produced and prepared for export in accordance with the requirements in the
bilateral operational workplan.”
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This is very interesting, Hường. Maybe USDA is doing the way that JICA has been doing, in your home town. So you now may have another potential partner.
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