Purple star apple accelerates to penetrate into the US market

Soc Trang is well-known for being a hick province located by the Hau river. The Soc Trang provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has been encouraging enterprises to sign product consumption association contracts with cooperatives cultivating specialty fruit trees in the province for three consecutive years. Over three seasons of ripe fruit, pomelo, and star apple products used more than 1,400 tons of fruit trees (1,120 tons of pomelo, more than 273 tons of custard apple, and 8 tons of longan), of which more than 210 tons were exported.

According to Mr. Vu Ba Quan, head of the Ke Sach district's Agriculture and Rural Development Office, the number of Ke Sach star apples exported to the United States and Singapore markets is rising. In the first harvest year, two associate enterprises consumed approximately 31 tons of fruits; in the 2020-2021 crop year, despite several challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the consumption level reached over 162 tons.

Cooperatives are scheduled to partner with six enterprises in the 2021-2022 crop year to deliver Ke Sach purple star apple to the US market, with a projected production double that of the previous year. There have been two OCOP products granted four stars in the purple star apple chain: Trinh Phu Agriculture Cooperative (Trinh Phu Commune) and Quyet Thang Cooperative (Xuan Hoa Commune).

Ke Sach district has increased the area planted with purple star apples from 80 ha in 2013 to over 1,800 ha now, with over 1,500 ha bearing fruit and producing an annual yield of 30,000 tons. Numerous gardeners that cultivate purple star apple are included in the production chain associated with five cooperatives. Currently, the cooperatives have 96 members who grow fruits by VietGAP requirements on an area of more than 100 hectares and have been issued 17 planting area codes totaling 114 hectares. To ensure traceability, all co-operatives that cultivate star apple have registered trademarks and electronic stamps.

Currently, Soc Trang province contains more than 28,400 hectares of fruit trees. Bananas, mangoes, citrus trees, custard apples, and longan are the major fruit plants. Production is projected to be 244,600 tons.