On the hills, farmers are busy harvesting delicious and nutritious oranges to bring them to consumers nationwide.

On the occasion, the trucks from Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai have flocked to Ham Yen District to carry oranges to the localities. The orange market has been expanded as the demand for oranges during Tet Festival has increased.

Officers from Dong Ba Market’s Management Board (Thua Thien – Hue Province) visiting an orange garden in Tan Thanh Commune, Ham Yen District.

Ham Yen Oranges have a sweet and refreshing taste, so they are more expensive during the days ahead of Tet. Ham Yen District consists of 13 communes and towns along the banks of Lo River, possesses thick, dry and airy alluvial soil with moderate slopes. With a total area of over 7,200 hectares, the locality has harvested between 90,000 and 100,000 tonnes of oranges per year, worth a total of hundreds of billions of Vietnamese Dong. In recent years, the local farmers have applied the model of producing safe and organic oranges following VietGAP standards, so their quality has been raised.

Ham Yen farmers harvesting oranges for the upcoming Tet.

Oranges have become a specialty with an advantage over other fruits, so they have been prioritised for concentrated planting. The value of Ham Yen Oranges has been raised because they are now labelled with origin-tracing stamps. The output of oranges harvested in the 2019-2020 crop year was estimated at 100,000 tonnes per year, with total value reaching over VND800 billion. Ahead of Tet, major supermarkets such as BigC, Metro, Co.opmart, FiviMax and Lotte, as well as wholesale markets in Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau, Can Tho, and Thua Thien Hue, have ordered oranges from Ham Yen, therefore, the local people no longer worry about the output for their products.

Ham Yen Oranges are recognised as one of 50 specialty fruits in Vietnam and also as a gold agricultural brand in 2019.

Ham Yen District is coordinating with relevant agencies to develop geographical indications for local oranges, towards exporting to international markets such as Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore.