The once well-known Lai Thieu Orchard, home to thousands of ancient fruit trees in southern Vietnam’s Binh Duong Province, is on its way to restoring its former glory.

The fruit garden includes thousands of privately-owned fruit tree farms located in Lai Thieu, which now covers Binh Nham, Hung Dinh, An Thanh, and An Son Wards of Thuan An Town.

After around 20 years of degradation due to its uncompetitive prices compared to imported fruit, Lai Thieu Orchard has shrunk to only 1,300 hectares, and it now includes 660 hectares of purple mangosteen.

It was this type of fruit that built Lai Thieu Orchard’s reputation years ago.

Efforts to save gardens of ancient trees

Currently, 64 percent of the orchard’s mangosteen trees are 60-100 years old.

Locals in Lai Thieu and tourists who visited years ago must have known or heard of Lai Thieu Orchard.

“All of the streets from neighboring areas leading to Lai Thieu Orchard were packed with bicycles and tourists, especially around the fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar calendar,” said Le Quoc Hung, now chairman of the farmers’ association of Hung Dinh Ward.

“All of the vehicles, most of which were bicycles, were stuck in traffic from Cau Ngang Bridge.

“At the time, I sold entrance tickets at Cau Ngang to enter Lai Thieu Orchard. I could tear off 100 wads each with 100 tickets.”

Although most Lai Thieu locals do not make the majority of their income through their fruit farms, many have preserved their century-old farms with their ancient fruit trees in order to maintain memories inherited from their ancestors.

Lai Thieu natives consider their fruit gardens to be their ‘flesh and blood,’ said Truong Cong Thac, head of the business department of Thuan An Town.

As a result, they have not chopped down century-old mangosteen trees.

Preserving the trees merely for memory’s sake is a waste of the economic potential of the land, because the quality of Lai Thieu mangosteen and other fruits is well-known.

Since there was a time when Lai Thieu mangosteen did not have an exclusive trademark registered, people who grew other varieties were able to claim that their inferior-quality fruit had been grown there. This marred the fame of Lai Thieu fruit.

The Lai Thieu brand name

Local residents eventually decided to set up a 12-member team to run a project called, ‘Building and Managing the Trademark of Lai Thieu Mangosteen.’

The team traveled to other fruit farms in such Mekong Delta provinces as Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, and Tien Giang to learn how they had built trademarks.

“We drew useful lessons to promote our fruit gardens,” said Nguyen Van Doi, a fruit garden owner in Lai Thieu.

At present, garden owners select each qualified fruit and paste the exclusive logo of Lai Thieu Trademark before they go to market.

The trademark was approved in June this year to ‘go public’ at markets as an exclusive brand name of Lai Thieu.

With the establishment of the exclusive trademark, consumers are assured of the fruit quality, and the sellers earn better profits.

“Thanks to the brand name of Lai Thieu Mangosteen, a businessman from Ho Chi Minh City came and ordered 10 metric tons of mangosteens,” said Vo Khanh Quan, chairman of the farmers’ association of Thuan An.

Lai Thieu farm owners are considering granting authority to an agency to manage its trademark and apply logos to the fruits.

In addition, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Binh Duong Province plans to organize regular fruit festivals in Lai Thieu to promote the brand name and the consumption of its fruit.

In addition to the famous purple mangosteens, Lai Thieu Orchard also grows durian, jackfruit, and strawberry.

At the fruit festival last year in Lai Thieu, visitors bought 20 metric tons of Lai Thieu fruits, including 11 metric tons of mangosteen, according to Vo Thi Anh Xuan, director of the Binh Duong Travel Promotion Center.