Bac Giang Province has promoted lychee sales through domestic distribution channels

Boosting domestic sales

According to the Bac Giang Provincial Department of Industry and Trade, nearly 86,000 tonnes of lychees were sold in 2024, including nearly 48,000 tonnes of early-ripen lychees. Lychees were sold smoothly both domestically and overseas. Specifically, 61,000 tonnes of lychees were sold domestically through wholesale markets, traditional markets, supermarkets, e-commerce platforms, and other wholesale and retail channels. The price of high-quality lychees this year is double to triple that in 2023, reaching VND55,000-85,000/kg, the highest ever recorded.

The increase in product prices was due to a poor main-crop lychee harvest, resulting in low production output and insufficient supply.

For years, localities and authorities at different levels have done a good job in lychee promotion, helping add value to lychees and increase lychee sales in the domestic market.

Before the lychee harvest began, they held online and offline promotion events pertaining to tourism development, helped businesses, cooperatives and farmers advertise and sell lychees through online platforms. The provincial Department of Industry and Trade, and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, among other agencies worked with businesses, got them to survey lychee growing areas, and helped them purchase high-quality products for sales to different markets.

This year, lychees were distributed through merchants, wholesale markets in the northern provinces and cities of Hanoi, Quang Ninh, and Hai Phong, as well as central and southern localities of Thu Duc, Binh Dien, Hoc Mon in Ho Chi Minh City, Dau Day in Dong Nai Province, Hoa Cuong in Da Nang; shopping centers, supermarkets (GO! Da Nang, Mega Market, Saigon Co.op, Hapro, and Aeon, among others), traditional markets, retail businesses and corporations; major domestic and international e-commerce platforms (Voso, Sendo, Tiki, Shopee, Lazada, Postmart, Alibaba, and Amazon); and social media platforms like Facebook, Zalo, and YouTube.

Bac Giang Province was intensifying trade promotion and expanding the market to increase sales of lychees. In addition to organizing lychee sales promotion activities in the districts of Tan Yen and Luc Ngan, Bac Giang established task forces to survey and explore international markets; study border markets of Lao Cai and Lang Son provinces, and southern wholesale markets; and work with several provinces, cities, distribution systems, and wholesale markets.

The provincial industry and trade sector has maintained updated information about products of local enterprises on the online e-commerce platform san24h.vn. In addition, the sector has arranged for local enterprises to participate in exhibitions to sell agricultural and OCOP products of Bac Giang Province in Ho Chi Minh City.

As a result, Bac Giang’s products are increasingly accessible to a wider domestic customer base. Despite a decrease in 2024 output, revenue from lychee and related supporting services is estimated to exceed VND5.76 trillion (against more than VND6.87 trillion in 2023). Of the sum, lychee sales account for over VND4.8 trillion, with prices averaging nearly VND56,200 per kg, 2.4 times higher than the average price in 2023.

What lesson for 2025?

Nguyen Dinh Nghia, Director of the Bac Giang Industry and Trade Promotion Center, said that through the 2024 lychee season, the center has drawn valuable experience. Many business owners and merchants came directly to lychee gardens to purchase and sign contracts instead of receiving the products from gardeners as before. This model will strengthen the linkage between farmers and enterprises, and increase the signing of sale and purchase contracts, creating an agricultural product value chain.

This model will help resolve the issue of local traffic congestion during the lychee season, enabling products to reach consumers faster. According to Nghia, in previous years, the export volume was usually higher than domestic consumption, but this lychee season saw domestic consumption exceeding exports, emphasizing the important role of Vietnam’s 100-million consumer market. Therefore, along with boosting exports, it is necessary to promote domestic sales.

The year 2024 also saw successful lychee sales through garden tourism.

In the 2024 lychee season, Phuc Hoa Commune attracted thousands of visitors, with many groups consisting of hundreds of tourists. Meanwhile, through the 2024 Summer Tourism Program, Luc Ngan District welcomed 250,000-260,000 visitors coming to experience lychee harvests, an increase of about 10 percent compared to 2023. These included 245,000-254,000 domestic visitors and 5,000-6,000 foreign tourists. Notably, visitors not only purchased lychees but also took photos and videos, and posted them on social media platforms, making Bac Giang lychee known to more people in Vietnam and abroad.

This year, Bac Giang intensified lychee sales in both domestic and international markets by promoting the province’s key and potential products as well as the locality’s image through various events, enhancing exchanges and cooperation to attract investment, promote trade and tourism, implementing a long-term strategy to increase the value of products, and advertising products in a professional and effective manner.