There are 167 Chinese merchants who have registered with northern Bac Giang Province’s Luc Ngan District to enter Vietnam in May and June to buy lychees from the district, as of April 6, according to the district People’s Committee.

The district is waiting for approval from the Immigration Department under the Ministry of Public Security to allow Chinese merchants to enter Vietnam.

It is expected to welcome a total 500 Chinese merchants, who have been buying lychees from local farmers for many years, in the next few months.

Local authorities will arrange cars to pick up Chinese merchants at border gates, with all merchants to be tested for Covid-19 and quarantined for 14-days at centralized quarantine facilities before visiting lychee farms.

Luc Ngan District estimates that the total lychees harvested this year would reach 120,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 41 percent.

Vu Viet Anh, deputy director of Hai Duong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, many foreign traders have registered to enter Vietnam to buy lychees from the northern province.

He said foreign importers, especially those from Japan, used to send their experts to Vietnam to supervise processing and packaging of lychees. This year, however, the Japanese have shifted to supervising through surveillance cameras due to the impact of Covid-19.

Chinese importers had already set up packaging firms right in Hai Duong province’s Thanh Ha District and Chi Linh City years ago, he added.

"The province welcomes merchants and enterprises to buy the province’s lychees, however, foreigners must comply with Covid-19 prevention measures," he stressed.

He expected the province to harvest around 45,000-52,000 tons of lychees this season.

Hai Duong Province’s total area for lychee cultivation is 10,000 hectares, of which 3,300 hectares are in Thanh Ha District, 3,600 in Chi Linh Province, and the rest in other localities.