These days, at Loc Mai Agricultural Cooperative (An Lac Thon Commune, Can Tho City), the bustling atmosphere of harvesting purple star apples for export in the 2025 - 2026 crop.
Having just packed carefully selected star apple boxes that met standards, Mr. Su Quoc Loc - Director of the cooperative, said - in the past 2 weeks, the cooperative has been linked to sell about 10 tons of fruit at the price of 45,000 VND/kg. "The export situation is very promising, everyone is happy," he said.
Mr. Loc informed that thanks to maintaining the investor link for many years, gardeners' income has increased significantly. On average, 1ha of star apple yields a profit of 200 - 300 million VND higher than before joining the export chain. Although this year, storms and flooding have caused some areas to crack, according to Mr. Loc, the output has increased, estimated at 25 - 30 tons/ha, an increase of about 5 tons/ha compared to previous years.
Mr. Loc added that to proactively source goods, in recent years the cooperative has applied the technique of processing arranged flowers, extending the harvest time instead of relying entirely on the natural crop. Previously, star apple was only harvested from the end of November to the beginning of April of the following year. When the fruit is ripe, the supply exceeds demand, the market is flooded, causing prices to decrease, while other months have a shortage of supply.
Mr. Loc analyzed that handling off-season flowering brings clear economic efficiency: costs are almost unincreased, productivity is equivalent to a favorable crop (about 20 tons/ha) but the selling price is higher than the average of VND9,000/kg; off-season profits increase by more than VND 180 million/ha. The harvest is also more abundant and the rental price is lower. From there, gardeners adjusted the crop to spread, extending the harvest time to June - 7 years later, while at that time there were almost no star apple on the market.
As a long-time member of the export-export star apple supply to Loc Mai Agricultural Cooperative, Mr. Su Quoc Bao said that in the past, every harvest, farmers were always worried because the market was unstable, completely dependent on traders. At times when the fruit is ripe, the price drops to only 3,000 - 5,000 VND/kg; many ripe fruit gardens are full but no one wants to pick them, because the price is too low. For about 6 years now, when the company signed a guarantee, the price of star apple has always been stable and higher than the market.
"Now we only focus on taking care of the garden to meet export standards, and the cooperative has taken care of the output, so we are very assured," Mr. Bao shared.
Mr. Tran Van Phuong - Director of Xom Dong 2 Agricultural Cooperative (Thoi An Hoi Commune, Can Tho City), said - the Cooperative is also entering the harvest season for export. Purple star apple is purchased by businesses at 40,000 - 45,000 VND/kg, pink avocado star apple is from 50,000 - 55,000 VND/kg. This year, the cooperative has expanded to about 6 - 7 hectares, so the output is expected to increase. The advantage of the cooperative is that the pink avocado star apple variety has a late harvest end thanks to which the supply is not interrupted. This year, the cooperative is expected to supply about 300 tons of star apple of all kinds.
Mr. Phuong said that the cooperative has invested in a preliminary processing and packaging warehouse for exports, and regularly checked the soil, water, fruits and pesticides to ensure quality. "When products are exported abroad, people change their production thinking, focusing on environmentally friendly techniques. The chain of links between farmers and businesses helps reduce the risk of a low price crop, while raising the position of Vietnamese fruits," Mr. Phuong shared.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Can Tho City, the whole city currently has more than 102,000 hectares of fruit trees, with an annual output of nearly 1.2 million tons. The star apple growing area alone is more than 3,100 hectares, producing an output of about 40,000 tons/year. To date, the authorities have issued 37 star apple growing area codes with a total area of 329.3 hectares.
