Earning billions from mutant star apple varieties

Soc Trang Mr. Tran Anh Nhan, 46 years old, in Ke Sach district, spends a lot of time researching how to breed mutant star apples, earning about three billion VND per year.

Mr. Nhan's 3.5-hectare four-season star apple garden in My Thuan hamlet, Nhon My commune, is full of fruit at the end of the year. In one corner of the garden, workers are covering the fruit to keep out insects, while others are busy harvesting to deliver to customers.

His family has a tradition of growing specialty trees such as mango, longan, and star apple, so from a young age, Mr. Nhan had the opportunity to learn about tree care and grafting techniques. In 2010, he discovered in his garden a 5-year-old purple star apple tree that bore fruit all year round, while the normal variety bears fruit in four months.

When ripe, the fruit weighs 250-500 grams, has a shiny skin and a beautiful purple color. He tried the soft flesh, chewy texture, sweet taste, and few seeds, different from other common varieties. The tree bears fruit all year round, so the garden owner named it the Four Seasons Star Apple.

Mr. Nhan harvests four-season star apples in the garden. Photo: An Minh

Seeing a strange plant, he spent time monitoring the "mother tree", grafting branches and planting them all over the garden. He also researched grafting (grafting branches) purple star apple trees onto four-season star apple trees. The initial seedlings were carefully selected by him, disease-free and healthy, and grafted after about a year of planting.

After many failures, it was not until 2013 that Mr. Nhan perfected the breeding technique, successfully growing more than 100 four-season star apple trees in his garden. "I grafted about 200 trees but was only successful about 60%. The trees are easy to care for, fertilizing only once a month," he said, adding that this type of star apple bears fruit after 14-18 months. After 5 years, one hectare produces about 35 tons of fruit per year, 10 tons higher than regular star apples.

The garden owner initially intended more than 100 star apple trees as parent trees for further propagation. Mr. Nhan spent more than two years conducting the testing steps and has just achieved parent garden certification with 80 trees.

Unlike other common varieties, the four-season star apple only needs to have its thin skin peeled off to be used. Photo: An Minh

The four-season star apple tree has the outstanding characteristic of blooming naturally all year round and being able to withstand salinity. During the recent historic drought and salinity, many varieties of trees in the garden could not withstand it, but the mutant star apple tree still survived and produced fruit normally. "Although the tree is easy to care for and has few diseases, farmers need to proactively source water for irrigation during the dry season to ensure yield," said Mr. Nhan.

In 2016, Mr. Nhan sold about 3 tons of four-season star apples to the market at 22,000 VND per kg. The strange star apple fruit, when it first appeared on the market, received compliments from customers. Many people were surprised when they first ate the different star apple fruit. Many fruit farms came to Mr. Nhan's garden to order, but the output was not enough to sell.

Currently, Mr. Nhan has about 1,000 four-season star apple trees that produce stable fruit, and about 500 young trees. From the original garden, each year he sells about 100,000 seedlings everywhere at a price of 80,000 VND each.

With a fairly high selling price of 30,000 to 80,000 VND per kg, but with outstanding characteristics and beautiful appearance, the strange star apple is very popular in the market. In addition to selling domestically, Mr. Nhan is currently affiliated with a number of businesses exporting star apples to the US. The total output sold domestically and internationally is about 80 tons per year.

The four-season star apple has a thin skin, chewy and sweet flesh. Photo: An Minh

In 2020, Mr. Nhan established a cooperative with the goal of forming a specialized area for growing star apples of more than 30 hectares, of which 11 hectares were assigned a growing area code by the specialized sector. Star apple products were also recognized as 4-star OCOP (One Commune One Product program of the Ministry of Industry and Trade ) at the provincial level.

According to the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection of Soc Trang, the province has more than 2,300 hectares of star apples, mainly concentrated in Ke Sach district, including varieties such as purple star apple, lo rena, and pink avocado. Of which, the four-season purple star apple variety is highly appreciated by experts and the market because of its outstanding advantages of bearing fruit all year round and beautiful appearance.

An Minh

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/kiem-tien-ty-tu-giong-vu-sua-dot-bien-4675341.html