Ninh Thuan (VNA) - The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s plant cultivationdepartment has recognised Ninh Thuan province’s NH01-152 as a new grape varietyand allowed the province to grow it on a trial basis before beginningcommercial cultivation.

The south-central province,the country’s largest grape producer, has been growing the new variety on anexperimental basis since 2013 on an area of 6ha and so has the neighbouring provinceof Binh Thuan.

NH01 -152 was created bythe province-based Nha Ho Research Institute for Cotton and AgricultureDevelopment.

Phan Cong Kien, deputyhead of the institute, said the department’s recognition would enable farmersto mass produce the grape and thus have a new high-quality variety. It wouldreplace some old grape varieties now grown in the province, he said.

It produces an averageyield of 15-18 tonnes per hectare in each of its two annual crops, according tothe institute. It can be grown on many different types of soil, has a highfruiting rate and is highly disease-resistant.

Its fruit is large andhas a slight fragrance, just one or two seeds and flesh that is slightly sweet,firm and crunchy and is meant mainly for eating fresh.

Traders buy the newgrape fruit at 100,000-120,000 VND (4.3-5.2 USD) a kilogramme, two times theprice of the red cardinal and NH01-48, two major grape varieties grown in NinhThuan.

Grape farming has beendeveloping in Ninh Thuan in recent years with local authorities showing farmersadvanced methods of growing the fruit, including using water-efficientirrigation.

Ninh Thuan gets thelowest rainfall in the country while half of the province’s grape growing areadoes not get water from irrigation works.

The provincial People’sCommittee has instructed relevant agencies and localities to expand the areaunder grapes grown to Vietnamese good agricultural practice (VietGAP)standards.

Localities have beeninstructed to grow NH01 -152 in large-scale grape fields in Ninh Hai district’sVinh Hai commune.

The province plans toexpand grape orchards-related eco-tourism and promote the brand name of itsgrapes that are meant for eating fresh.

Households offeringtourism services in their grape orchards are taught both how to grow to VietGAPstandards and tourism-related skills.  

In 2012, the province’sgrape varieties were granted geographical indication (GI) certification by theNational Office of Intellectual Property.

It has nearly 1,300haunder the fruit, 80 percent of it red cardinal and the rest other varieties,and an annual output of 30,000 tonnes.-VNA