Mango is a popular fruit in Asia, featuring a very special taste and sweetness. Mango trees have roots that extend deep into the ground to absorb nutrients and water enabling them to survive the long dry season. Normally, mango trees grow well in sandy soil under a temperature c.24-27oC. It takes at least three years from planting for mango trees to produce fruit.

Mango trees are mostly planted throughout Central and South Vietnam. In Dak Nong, mango is a popular fruit within the Dak Nong UNESCO Global Geopark, mainly in Dak Gan commune, Dak Mil district with c.250 ha in area. Amongst, various types of mango are planted, e.g. Cat (‘sand’, because of many sand-like dots on the skin) mango, Tuong (‘elephant’, because of the large size), along with Thai and Taiwanese (imported varieties) mango.

The soil in Dak Gan commune is mostly strongly weathered shale, siltstone and sandstone, which although poor in nutrition contains ample groundwater with good drainage depth. Above the weathered bedrock, recent (c.200,000-300,000 years ago) volcanic eruption produced an iron-rich, dark-colored basaltic cover c.30-50cm thick, which provides additional nutrition for mango growth.

The mango plantation that we are going to visit belongs to Mr. Nguyen Van Hoi’s family, who cultivate mango in accordance with Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGap) to produce high-quality mango without chemical residues.

Having begun growing mango in 2008 in an area of 1.3ha, today they have created a stable income with two crops annually, earning annually hundreds of millions of Vietnam Dong. Coming to this plantation, in addition to knowing more about the mango and enjoying eating the fruit (at the right time), visitors can also learn about geology – especially the bedrock, and the basalts, including the distinctive columnar basalt of Dak Nong UNESCO Global Geopark.