Early lychee 'king' in Thanh Ha

Le Minh Thanh’s family in Thanh Quang commune harvests more than 20 tons of early lychees this year

We took a small boat from Ba Nha hamlet to an alluvial islet in Thanh Lanh hamlet, seeing many people carrying early lychees from the islet to a wharf by motorbike for transport to weighing points.

Thanh’s garden is located at the end of a newly-concreted road on the islet.

It covers an area of more than eight mau (3,600 m²) with about 500 early lychee trees, deemed the most in the district.

Bundles of lychees are ready to be taken to weighing points

The vast garden was half harvested. Both the gardener and more than a dozen workers, his family members and hired laborers, were excited at picking lychees.

They harvested about 2 tons of lychees that day, Thanh said while showing us around.

Thanh’s family annually obtained 30 – 35 tons of early lychees in previous years but only over 20 tons this year.

Thanh and his wife often get up very early to pick lychees with hired workers

However, his family will still make a profit of about 700 million VND with an average selling price of 35,000 VND/ kg.

Thanh enjoys a bumper crop of lychees every year. This is not a coincidence but the result of Thanh and his wife’s effort and experience from years of working.

It is much more difficult to grow lychees on an islet than the mainland. Nonetheless, Thanh and his wife are in the garden almost every day, rain or shine.

Some of the workers are from as far as Thanh Hoa province

All of their lychees are cultivated under VietGAP.

Thanh’s family has for years been a good farming and business household in Thanh Quang commune.

MINH NGUYEN