Visitors buy Son La longan at the opening ceremony of the safe farm produce week on August 3. (Photo: VOV).

On display are longan, vegetables, fruits (fresh, dried, bottled), and many processed products, introduced by 20 participating units and cooperatives from across Son La. All the showcased brands have met the VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards, including mangoes, avocados, longans, red flesh dragon fruit, garlic, beans, tomatoes, and Moc Chau cabbage.

The event aims to facilitate the advertisement and introduction of safe agricultural products to consumers, while providing addresses of suppliers of safe agricultural products, towards creating a stable consumption market for Son La’s safe farm produce, with longan being a key product.

It also offers a good chance for production units and cooperatives to foster connections in consuming Son La’s safe farm produce in the Hanoi market in particular, and the domestic markets as a whole.

In 2017, Son La had nine products granted brand protection certificates, including Ma River longan, Son La coffee, Phu Yen orange, Yen Chau round mango, Moc Chau Shan Tuyet tea, Moc Chau safe vegetable, Moc Chau Olong tea, Ta Xua tea, and Son La honey.

Son La avocado on sales at the event. (Photo: VOV).

The province’s agricultural products have been exported to the Republic of Korea (RoK), Australia, the United States, France and Switzerland, among other countries. In 2018, Son La will export 1,000 tonnes of mangoes, and 1,500 tonnes of longans, lemons and avocados to Australia, the European Union (EU) and Japan, with an expected value of over US$100 million.

According to Vu Duc Thuan, deputy director of the Son La Department of Planning and Investment and director of the provincial investment promotion centre, in an effort to accelerate the exports of clean and safe farm produce, Son La has been running 15 safe longan production chains so far, with about 5,000 tonnes being certified to VietGAP standards.

Source: NDO