Economic prospects from purple Mica milk fruit tree

Mica purple star apple when ripe has a characteristic purple color and is delicious.

In 2000, Mr. Vinh converted his rice field to grow dragon fruit. After the Covid-19 pandemic , the dragon fruit market was unstable and farmers had no profit. Faced with this situation, Mr. Vinh researched, learned, and experimented with growing many types of trees such as durian, grapefruit, jackfruit, etc., but to no avail.

Realizing that Mica purple star apples have good quality and are popular with consumers, he and some other farmers consulted with experts and then went to Ben Tre province to buy seeds to plant. Mica is the abbreviation for "Milk Fruit of Cai Mon", meaning the star apple variety of Cai Mon (Cho Lach district, Ben Tre province). Mr. Vinh boldly converted 8,500m2 ^of dragon fruit to this type of tree, keeping only a few hundred pillars to "take the short term to support the long term". Up to now, the whole Long Tri commune has 4ha of Mica purple star apples.

Mr. Vinh said: “This type of tree is easy to grow but needs regular monitoring and care. The tree has a relatively good ability to withstand salt. After 1.5-2 years of planting, it begins to bear fruit, depending on the care conditions, each fruit weighs from 350-500g”. Mica star apple when ripe has a characteristic purple color, no latex. The flesh is opaque white, has a mild aroma, and a sweet taste. Mica purple star apple has high nutritional value , and the skin can be eaten.

During the growing process, Mr. Vinh only used fertilizers and chemicals when the tree was young (about 30%) to make the tree strong and develop evenly. After that, he mainly applied organic methods, so that the star apple fruit when sold was guaranteed to be clean and safe. Currently, purple Mica star apple is sold in some supermarkets. The price of purple Mica star apple ranges from 40,000 - 50,000 VND/kg. On the occasion of the Lunar New Year of At Ty in 2025, Mr. Vinh sold 2 tons of fruit.

Currently, Mr. Vinh is coordinating with the Commune Farmers' Association to prepare documents to recognize products that meet OCOP standards; at the same time, he is collaborating with local milk fruit growers to build the Mica Long Tri purple milk fruit brand to meet the needs of domestic customers, and move towards exporting to foreign markets.

According to the Chairwoman of the Long Tri Commune Farmers' Association - Tran Thi Kim Xuyen, growing purple Mica star apple is a new model in the locality. Currently, the Commune Farmers' Association is coordinating with the District Farmers' Association to put the product on the e-commerce platform to expand the output./.

Chau Thanh

Source: https://baolongan.vn/trien-vong-kinh-te-tu-cay-vu-sua-tim-mica-a193907.html