According to deputy head of the border gate’s customs sub-department, Hoang Thi Thieu Hoa, fresh lychees are often shipped via Tan Thanh from mid-May to late June every year.
Efforts have been made by the customs office, border guards and plant quarantine checkpoints to ease the load in the border gate so that fresh lychees can undergo customs clearance for export within the same day.
A parking lot dedicated to trucks loaded with fresh lychee is also set up at Tan Thanh border gate to facilitate lychee exports to China.
In Vietnam’s Bac Giang and Hai Duong provinces, some lychees that have matured early have been harvested from May 25, however the main harvest comes around June to early July.
China remains the largest importer of Vietnamese lychees, mostly via border gates in Lao Cai, Ha Giang and Lang Son provinces. In 2018, China imported approximately 51,000 tonnes of fresh lychees and 19,000 tonnes of dried lychees worth over US$30 million.
