The commune in Hon Dat district is thelargest mango producer in the Mekong Delta province, with its weather and soilespecially suitable for growing mangoes, especially the specialty Hoa Locvariety.
It has set up the Hon Dat Hoa Loc Mango Cooperativeto promote the cultivation of VietGAP quality mangoes and link up withcompanies to secure outlets.
Nguyen Thanh Do is a member of the cooperativeand has been growing VietGAP quality mangoes in the commune’s Hon Me hamlet inrecent years.
The cultivation and post-harvest processestake time and labour but ensure quality and high prices, he said.
Farmers who grow VietGAP-quality mangoesstrictly follow standards laid down for fertiliser and chemical use and coverunripe fruits with plastic bags to protect them from pests.
After harvest, the mangoes are classified andlabelled with a QR code for origin tracing. Consumers can know the growingprocess and place and contact address by scanning the code.
VietGAP quality Hoa Loc mango cultivationoffers them an income of 300 million VNA (12,800 USD) per hectare a year,according to cooperative members.
Nguyen Thanh Thai, director of the cooperative,said members harvest the fruits twice a year, each time getting a yield of fourtonnes per hectare.
The fruits fetch steady prices since they arepreferred by consumers for their high quality, he said.
The cooperative sells to clean agriculturalproduce shops in Rach Gia city and Phu Quoc district and An Huu market in TienGiang province’s Cai Be district.
Tran Xuan Nghi, Chairman of the Hon DatDistrict Farmers Association, said the association had asked the provinceDepartment of Science and Industry for support to create a collective brandname for Hon Dat Hoa Loc Mango.
This would help promote the market andimprove the value of the fruit, he said.
Tho Son grows more than 360ha of variousvarieties of mangoes.
The commune has determined that mango, riceand shrimp are its three agricultural products with high development potential.
Many farmers in the commune with unproductiverice fields and growing fruits and other crops are switching to Hoa Loc andother mango varieties, according to the local People’s Committee.
Nguyen Van Duc of Hon Me hamlet got a softloan to grow Hoa Loc mango trees in his orchard, and has earned high incomes.After the success of the first harvests, he planted more trees, he said.
Farmers in the commune have adopted advancedfarming techniques to grow mangoes in the off-season to earn higher prices,especially during festivals like Tet (Lunar New Year)./.