Ke Sach’s purple star apple ready for export

In 2013 the approximate growing area of purple star apple in Ke Sach district (Soc Trang) was only 80 ha, mainly concentrated in Xuan Hoa commune, of which the area for stable fruit production was 15 ha. More recently the purple star apple has spread to many localities in the district across an area of up to 1,800 ha, with more than 1,500 ha producing fruit, accounting to an output of more than 30,000 tons/year.

From this scattered and unstructured production, purple star apple growers have now organized their production into a chain of consumption links with five core cooperatives. These purple star apple planting cooperatives have all applied science and technology to activities such as pruning, packing, spreading crops, using organic fertilizers and producing all according to the standards and processes of the export market.

As of now there are 96 members of cooperatives producing purple star apples according to VietGAP standards, with an area of 103.5 ha, and have been granted 17 planting area codes with more than 114 ha. All cooperatives that grow star apples have registered trademarks and electronic stamps for traceability.

Speaking at a recent opening event of a fruit export processing facility in Ke Sach district, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, the General Director of VINA T&T Import-Export Co. Ltd. said he was very pleased knowing that the members of the cooperatives have made rapid progress in the cultivation of the star apple in recent years. The percentage of star apple fruit meeting export standards is increasing day by day thanks to the packing cover using clear nylon bags.

When Mr. Tung visited the star apple planting areas in Trinh Phu commune (Ke Sach district), he was surprised and delighted to see that the packaging of star apples with clear plastic bags was accomplished very quickly (2,400 fruits/day) with simplified and improved tools.

Over the past four years Ke Sach star apples have been exported to the US and Singaporean markets with increasing quantities. In the first crop year, there were 2 businesses with consumption totalling more than 31 tons. In the 2020-2021 crop year, despite many difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the consumption quantity still reached nearly 162 tons.

In the crop year 2021-2022, cooperatives will link up with six businesses to bring Ke Sach purple star apples to the US market with an expected output to be double that of the previous year. Within the purple star apple production chain there are already two OCOP products with 4-star ratings, from Trinh Phu Agricultural Cooperative (Trinh Phu commune) and Quyet Thang Cooperative (Xuan Hoa commune).