The best of Ben Tre (Part I)

Posted: Thu, 10/09/2010 - 09:02

Through the hundred years' history of its formation and development, the islandish lands of Ben Tre have witnessed myriads of ups and downs. The Ben Tre people are very proud of their native land. And they are very proud of the best attributed to their stretches of land.

1. Ben Tre has the densest grid of ditches and canals

A province located at the endstream of the

Mekong River , Ben Tre is formed by three islets of alluvion. Before pouring into the South China Sea, the Tien River ran through Ben Tre in four river branches: the My Tho, Ba Lai, Ham Luong, and Co Chien rivers. These rivers in turn branched off into hundreds of smaller ones interweaving into a dense grid and leading to all directions. The total length of the grid is estimated at about 6,000 kilometers. The land-to-river ratio is set at 1 km for 2.7 km. Therefore, Ben Tre is seen as the province having the greatest density of ditches and canals in the country. This has given Ben Tre the advantages of plentiful of natural fish, easy to develop the aquaculture industry, and convenient for waterway commercial transactions.

2. Ben Tre has the largest coconut area of the country 

Coconut tree has been seen as the symbol of Ben Tre ever since the early days of land opening in the Southern part. Even through years of fierce wars, coconut survived and stayed as close as a dear flesh-and-blood friend of the Ben Tre people. There was a time many in Ben Tre felled the tree for economic reasons, but have later been back with it for they realized it was with the coconut tree that their livelihood could be sustained for quite a long time. Today, Ben Tre's coconut area is approximately 36,000 hectares, yielding around 242 million nuts per year.

3. Ben Tre has the largest zone of speciality fruits of the country

Compared to other parts of the country, Ben Tre has the largest area of orchards, with 41,000 ha, annually yielding 375,000 tonnes of fruits. The province also has the largest number of famous speciality fruit trees, such as the milk yellow-meat and no-stone durian, the green-skin pomelo, the Cai Mon mangosteen, the high-yield Four Season mango, the special orange of Mo Cay, and tens of other specialities imported from other region or abroad.

4. Ben Tre has the largest supply of seedlings in the country

Ben Tre has been well-known for decades for its production and selling of seedlings, most concentrated in Cho Lach District. Every year, seedlings gardens in the province deliver more than 25 million seedlings to gardeners around the country. Before, it sold the stuffs mostly to provinces in the Mekong Delta and the South-Eastern regions. But now, its seedlings are also shipped to the Central Part, the

Central Highlands , and even the Northern Part of the country. The province has just been confirmed and acknowledged by VietBooks and the Vietnam News Agency Publishing House as the largest supply of seedlings in Viet Nam .

(to be continued)