Pomelo fragrance drifts far away

The third Bach Dang Pomelo Fragrance Festival 2024 held by People's Committee of Tan Uyen City is taking place at the Center for Culture, Sports - Community Learning of Bach Dang commune. During the first two days of the festival, on this island, many exciting activities took place, and attracted a large number of people and tourists visiting, shopping, and enjoying pomelo and other products from Bach Dang pomelo, as well as rich culinary specialties introduced by units and localities at the festival.

Tourists visit and enjoy Bach Dang pomelo at booths at the festival.

 Let the pomelo fragrance drift away

Roads in the central area of Tan Uyen city and roads leading to Bach Dang commune have become more beautiful for about a week with banners informing about the Bach Dang Pomelo Fragrance Festival; flowers, decorative lights, and colorful flags flutter everywhere. This year's festival comes again in the expectation of people and tourists from near and far. The festival is one of the events that carries the unique characteristic and a trademark of Tan Uyen City, associated with pomelo- a famous specialty fruit of this land. In particular, this is also the occasion when Tan Uyen Town - Tan Uyen City celebrates its 10th anniversary, so this year's festival is of great interest to the city. That is clearly shown through the organization of the festival: The festival duration is longer (4 days, from January 25 to 28), the scale is larger (59 booths), and the activities are also more abundant than the previous two events.

In the days just before Tet holidays, pomelo growing households on the island are busy with the joy of crop harvesting to provide Tet pomelos to customers. The joy of farmers multiplied when the third Bach Dang Pomelo Fragrance Festival took place right at this time. Nguyen Huu Tam, Director of Bach Dang Pomelo Cooperative, said that currently the cooperative has 11 members, with a total pomelo growing area of about 9.5 hectares. In addition to providing pomelos, members also process additional products from grapefruit, such as: pomelo wine, pomelo spring rolls, pomelo essential oil, pomelo tea, pomelo jam... and bring them to the festival to introduce to visitors.

“I and pomelo farmers in Bach Dang are so glad when this year's festival is held again. Participating in activities during the festival is a condition and opportunity for our farmers to gather, integrate, and develop sustainably. We hope that the festival would continue to be maintained so that more and more people know the collective brand "Bach Dang Pomelo" of Tan Uyen City, as well as of Binh Duong province", said Tam.

Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, Vice Chairwoman of Bach Dang Commune People's Committee, said that when they heard that the Bach Dang Pomelo Fragrance Festival would be held again this year, local people eagerly waited for the event. Together with the local government, to create a good impression in the hearts of visitors to "Bach Dang Smart Village", locals decorated their houses, hung flags, cleared land, cleaned landscapes, to have "bright, green, clean, beautiful" environment.

Animated island

In the past two days, Bach Dang island has become more bustling and vibrant. Coming to the festival, local people and tourists had the opportunity to take part in and experience activities, such as: to visit and shop at display booths inside the festival area; folk games; sightseeing by cruise on Dong Nai river; watch traditional martial arts perform; painting contest on conical hats and writing contest of beautiful letters on paper; fruit decoration contest; amateur music festival, performances of songs about Tan Uyen; "Tet reunion" program... Pomelo growers and those in need can also participate in a meaningful program that is a workshop introducing advanced organic agricultural technology processes and installation instructions of an electronic traceability system for key local products.

Many meaningful and practical activities organized throughout the festival days have been helping tourists feel more clearly the love for the land and people here. Doan Hong Tuoi, Chairman of Tan Uyen City People's Committee, Head of the Festival Organizing Committee, said that building on the success of the previous two festivals, this year's festival is held in the cheerful and warm atmosphere of the spring festival. This is an opportunity for Tan Uyen City to introduce the collective brand "Bach Dang Pomelo", honor typical pomelo farmer households of Tan Uyen City; At the same time, to promote and introduce the culture and specialties of the land and people of Tan Uyen to a large number of tourists inside and outside the province.

“This is the foundation for Tan Uyen City to develop picnic tourism combined with garden eco-tourism, forming a unique local tourism product, contributing to the development of agricultural economy and tourism products of the province and city to serve the needs of tourists... With the features and scale of this year's festival, Tan Uyen City People's Committee wishes to bring to visitors a thoughtfully prepared and meaningful festival to enhance cultural and spiritual life, bringing better opportunities for the city's specialty pomelo and pomelo brand of Binh Duong province", said Doan Hong Tuoi.

To bring Bach Dang pomelo products closer to consumers, speaking at the opening ceremony of this year's Bach Dang Pomelo Fragrance Festival, Nguyen Loc Ha, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of Provincial People's Committee, recommended farmers to cooperate well, learn more to access science and technology, market knowledge, know how to produce safely, and care about the health of consumers. Activities at the festival will contribute to promoting the spirit of solidarity and cooperation among farmers, improving the efficiency and quality of pomelo production and business cooperatives; encourage the companionship of a team of scientists, governments at all levels, and management agencies, from research , production organization to market connection, introduction, and promotion for sustainable development of the brand.

 Reported by Hong Thuan - Translated by Ngoc Huynh