The traffic of motorbikes carrying harvested lychees is several kilometers long.

At 5:30 a.m., highway 279 is packed with lychee traders rushing to deliver the seasonal fruit to wet markets. Lychee is freshly picked daily at 2 a.m.

The street has been painted lychee red.

A Chinese trader negotiates. Locals say Chinese fruit traders are their biggest buyers.

“My family harvested roughly 10 tons of lychee. This is the first batch of the season. My family sells one ton per week,” Ngo Xuan Phuc said, as he sweeps sweat off his face.

Farmers weigh lychee baskets. A lychee basket costs between VND3,000-16,000 ($0.13-0.70) a kilogram. However, prices have fallen in recent years. A 120-200 kilogram lychee basket only fetches VND500,000, instead of VND3 million in previous years.

Traders study the lychee bunches carefully to spot any fruit that is bad. “My family bought lychee from Hai Duong before coming to Bac Giang Province to buy more. From 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. ,throughout the whole season, my team gathers 60 tons of lychee and packs them into four containers before shipping it to China.”

Traders pack lychee into boxes that will be taken to the border gate.