Trang Dinh: Black jelly is of a bumper harvest with high price

– These days, people in Trang Dinh district are urgently harvesting black jelly. This year’s spring crop, black jelly is of a bumper harvest with high price, making many people joyful.

Chi Lang is one of the communes with a relatively large area of ​​black jelly in Trang Dinh district. In the spring crop of 2021, the whole commune has grown over 78 hectares of black jelly, most of which are field jelly.

Mr. Ly Lam, leader of the cooperation group growing black jelly in Dau Linh village, Chi Lang commune said: “The cooperative group has 15 households participating in growing black jelly with an area of ​​more than 2 hectares. This year, due to favorable weather and guaranteed irrigation water, the output is higher than last year. On average, our jelly production is about 230 kg/sao, about 20-30 kg/sao higher than the spring crop of 2020. Compared to last year, the price of black jelly this year is at 21,000 – 23,000 VND/kg, 3,000 – 5,000 VND/kg higher than the last year.”

People in Kim Dong commune, Trang Dinh district harvest black jelly

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Chi Lang Commune said: “In order to improve the economic value of the people, from the beginning of the year until now, the commune has coordinated with professional agencies to organize training for people on how to planting, tending and harvesting jelly to meet export standards. At the same time, the commune has submitted an application for the issuance of 5 growing area codes for more than 14 hectares of black jelly of 90 households.”

In other communes in Trang Dinh district, the harvesting of black jelly are also taking place urgently. Ms. Cam Thi Sen, Na Tha village, Kim Dong commune said: “My family has been growing jelly tree for more than 15 years, the area is over 4 sao each year. Thanks to the propaganda and technical training supported by the commune and specialized agencies, this year’s jelly crop has a higher yield, with an output of over 2 tons of dry jelly. It is expected that my family’s income from this year’s jelly crop will reach over 40 million VND.

According to statistics of the Division of Agriculture and Rural Development of Trang Dinh district, this spring crop, the whole district planted about 1,800 hectares of black jelly, up 600 hectares compared to the spring crop of 2020, the output is estimated at 9,000 tons. In which, the area of ​​ hill jelly reaches 846 ha, that of jelly field reaches 923 ha. Along with the communes with large annual jelly areas such as Tan Tien, Kim Dong, this year’s jelly crop, people in the Chi Lang, De Tham communes… also expand the area for growing jelly. Up to now, over 90% of jelly area has been harvested by farmers. Regarding the rest, people are urgently harvesting to prepare for planting for the summer-autumn jelly crop and sowing seeds for the spring crop in 2022. For hill jelly, because it is planted later than field jelly, it must be late July or early August that it can be harvested.

According to the Division of Agriculture and Rural Development, this year’s spring jelly crop is considered a bumper season with good price. The price of black jelly on the market at present reaches 23,000 VND/kg, 4,000 – 5,000 VND/kg higher compared to the same period in 2020. This is because most of the jelly growers have actively changed the way of harvesting and preserving to improve product quality.

Accordingly, unlike previous years, when harvesting black jelly, people cut off its roots and remove all kinds of plants and impurities. At the same time, the flowering jelly tree will also be removed by the people. In addition, many people have actively built warehouses and storage areas for black jelly. Thereby, these help the product meet the quality standards for export to foreign markets.

Mr. Chu Viet Ha, Head of the Division of Agriculture and Rural Development of Trang Dinh district, said: “Since the beginning of the year, the whole district has completed 104 dossiers to grant planting area codes in 15 communes with a total area of ​​over 500 hectares. At the same time, the unit coordinated with authorities at grassroots level to organize 57 training sessions and distribute over 3,300 sets of documents on such issues as the Protocol on phytosanitary for black jelly exported from Vietnam to China; the process of planting and taking care of black jelly… Thereby, it contributes to improving the output and quality of black jelly in the district.

Currently, in the area of ​​Trang Dinh district, there is currently a black jelly processing factory for export and there are two businesses that link to consume black jelly products for farmers. Besides, at the end of 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the General Administration of Customs of China signed a Protocol on the official export of black jelly to the Chinese market. These have become the motivation for farmers to expand production and focus on the stages of planting, caring until harvesting and preserving so that black jelly is increasingly improved in quality and value.