HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Farmers in the MekongDelta have entered the peak fruit harvesting season, with bumper harvests andhigh selling prices.

In Tra Vinh province, the peak harvest beganearly this month for specialty fruits like mangosteens, durians, rambutans andlongans.

Kha Van Hong, who has a 2,000 sq.m rambutanorchard in Tra Vinh’s Cau Ke district, said the weather was favourable forfruit this year. The fruit yield was more than 10 percent higher than normal,he said.

The prices of the fruits sold at orchards in theprovince last week were 4,000 – 5,000 VND (17-21 US cent) a kilogramme higherthan the same period last year, according to farmers.

Early this month, traders from HCM City offeredto buy in advance mangosteens in Cau Ke at a price of 40,000 – 45,000 VND (1.7– 1.9 USD) a kilogramme.

However, most farmers did not sell the fruit inadvance because the district’s mangosteens are in high demand.

The price of mangosteens sold at orchards in CauKe was 80,000 VND (3.4 USD) a kilogramme last week.

Do Van Tai, who grows mangosteen in Cau Ke’s AnPhu Tan commune, said this was the first time the price of mangosteen hadreached a record high.

In Can Tho city, traders bought Chu mango and HoaLoc mango at a price of 20,000 VND (85 US cent) a kilogramme, and durian at 40,000– 45,000 VND (1.7 – 1.9 USD) a kilogramme last week.

The price of fruits was down 5,000 – 15,000 VND (21– 64 US cent) a kilogramme against the beginning of the harvest season but werehigher than the same period last year.

In recent years, most farmers in Can Tho and theMekong Delta’s 12 provinces have planted high yields and quality fruitvarieties, which are in high demand in the market.

The profit for fruit growing is three to fourtimes higher than rice, according to farmers.

The regional provinces and Can Tho city have setup concentrated fruit growing areas to produce fruit with high and consistentquality for domestic consumption as well as exports.

Tien Giang province, which is the country’slargest fruit producer, has 9,200ha of concentrated durian growing areas,7,000ha of concentrated dragon fruit growing areas and more than 4,000ha ofconcentrated mango growing areas, according to the province’s Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development.

The Mekong Delta has about 307,000ha of fruits,producing about 4 million tonnes of fruits a year, and accounting for 40 percentof the country’s total fruit area.

The region’s durian, dragon fruit, milk appleand green skin and pink flesh grapefruit are exported to many markets.

Besides growing fruit, many farmers in the MekongDelta are using their orchards to offer tourism services.

In Can Tho’s Phong Dien district, for instance,many fruit farmers offer visitor services at their orchards.-VNS/VNA