The month-long Vietnam's Southern Fruit Festival that concluded here on Sunday was a success with thousands of local and foreign visitors enjoying a wide array of succulent and delicious fruits in varying shapes and colors.

The 2015 Southern Fruit Festival, held in Suoi Tien Theme Park in Ho Chi Minh City, was jointly organized by the municipal departments of the ministries of tourism, and agriculture and rural development.

During the closing ceremonies on June 20, winners of a fruit artistic decoration contest were announced. The contest was participated in by artisans from southern localities that include Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Long An and Tay Ninh.

Actual artworks made entirely of different kinds of fruits, roots and leaves, mostly depicting Vietnam's symbolic architectures, late President Ho Chi Minh, dragons or phoenixes, were presented during the festival.

A total of 50 kiosks in the form of wooden sailboats laden with assorted fruits, all locally produced, were built in the festival venue. Despite the conclusion of the month-long festival, over 150 species of fruits grown all over Vietnam are still on display and for sale until the end of summer. At the festival, prices were 20 to 40 percent lower than fruits sold in open markets or supermarkets.

Among the tasty fruits displayed during the festival were nam roi pomelo (mainly grown in southern Vinh Long province), hwang hau dragon fruit (southern Long An province), luc ngan litchi ( northern Bac Giang province), cai mon durian (southern Ben Tre province), vinh kim star apple (southern Tien Giang province), hoa loc mango (Tien Giang), tan trieu pomelo (southern Dong Nai province), lai thieu mangosteen (southern Binh Duong province), sa pa peach (northern Lao Cai province), vinh hao grape (central Binh Thuan province), nui ba den custard-apple (southern Tay Ninh province), vinh kim seedless guava (Tien Giang), and special avocado (central highlands Dak Lak province).

The festival also exhibited two unique collections of strange and giant fruits and roots. Rare and strange fruits included Osaka, Indian mulberry, Buddha hand-shaped grapefruit, purple longan, purple kohlrabi, purple mango, black tomato. These fruits are not only delicious but are also used as traditional medicines.

The collection of giant fruits and roots included a dioscorea collettii root weighing nearly 70 kg, wax gourds weighing at least 25 kg each, coconuts weighing 10 kg, gourds 6 kg, polemos 4 kg and oranges 1 kg.

According to Vietnamese herb doctors, dioscorea collettii can be found only in China, India, Myanmar and Vietnam, and this kind of medicinal plant can be used to reduce cholesterol in blood and combat inflammation.

Le Thi My Lan, a fruit seller at the festival, said fresh fruits are transported to the event everyday and are usually sold out within the day. "At weekends, visitors come in droves, so sellers like us are dog-tired," she said. Pham Thi My Xuan from southern An Giang province bought 4 kg of fresh litchi at a price of 19,000 Vietnamese dong (0.9 U.S. dollar) per kilogram.

Pham said she liked the fruits sold at the festival because " they are fresh, succulent, worm-free, and with little or no seeds at all."

And an American expatriate, who came along with his Vietnamese wife, said unlike in Vietnam, the wide variety of tropical fruits sold at the festival were rare and would cost much more in the United States.

Many varieties of Vietnamese fruits have been exported, after passing rigid health and safety requirements, to western countries. According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnamese litchis have been shipped to markets like the United States, France, and Australia.

Vietnam is estimated to harvest over 200,000 tons of fresh litchis this year, of which 40 percent will be exported, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Most of litchi trees are grown in the two northern provinces of Bac Giang and Hai Duong.

Vietnam is completing procedures to export star apples, which has already been exported to the European Union (EU), the United States, Australia, New Zealand and other foreign markets, said the agriculture ministry. Vietnam is also boosting shipments of mangos, dragon fruits, rambutan, litchis and longan to China, South Korea, Japan, India, the Middle East, and many EU countries.

Vietnam has exported 627 million U.S. dollars worth of fruits and vegetables in the first five months of this year, up 17.8 percent on-year, according to the General Statistics Office. Vietnamese fruits are now available in over 100 countries and regions around the world. Endi

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