Nghe An: Black plum specialty has high price, can't harvest in time to sell

Thanh Chuong black canarium is mainly grown in home gardens and hill gardens. Most of the canarium trees that currently produce a lot of fruit are purebred, perennial, tall, wide-canopied, and fruit-bearing canarium trees scattered in mountainous communes. Households with few trees have 1-2 trees, while households with many have 7-8 trees. In particular, some households have gardens with dozens of canarium trees that are producing fruit. Photo: Huy Thu

According to farmers, this year's canarium fruit crop is not very good and ripens later than usual. In previous years, the canarium fruit ripens at the end of June and the beginning of July of the lunar calendar, but now it is almost the 15th day of the 7th lunar month. When the canarium fruit is ripe, it must be harvested at the right time. If harvested early, there will be many green fruits. If harvested late, the canarium fruit will be covered with a lot of resin, which is called "canarium fruit with lamp odor". Photo: Huy Thu

On this occasion, those who pick canarium and those who sell young canarium (buying canarium from the tree) increase the harvest of canarium. Localities with a lot of canarium also form teams to pick canarium for hire, they go in groups of 2-5 people. Some people are both young canarium traders and canarium pickers. Photo: Huy Thu

When harvesting canarium in steep, grassy terrain, canarium pickers often spread nets around the canarium roots. Thanks to the large nets, harvesting canarium near ponds and streams is still safe, with little loss. Photo: Huy Thu

Picking canarium is a difficult and dangerous job. Pickers have to climb trees and use a pole to poke each canarium to fall to the ground. Careful canarium pickers often wear safety belts in case of an accident, but many canarium pickers just "climb loose" without wearing safety belts, because according to them "wearing them makes it difficult to work". Photo: Huy Thu

The season of canarium fruit has come and is creating jobs for hundreds of workers. In Thanh Chuong district, communes such as Thanh Nho, Thanh Linh, Thanh Tien... are localities with many people working in the profession of selling and picking canarium fruit. In particular, Thanh Nho commune has about 100 workers picking canarium fruit. The salary of canarium pickers is 500,000 - 600,000 VND/day, and that of canarium pickers is 200,000 - 250,000 VND/day. Photo: Huy Thu

In recent years, when black star fruit has become a specialty, a clean, delicious food that is favored by many people, and is sold at a "hot price" on the market, star fruit growers in Thanh Chuong district seem to be happier. Each household in the garden only needs to have a few pure star fruit trees that bear fruit to earn tens of millions of dong in every star fruit season. However, it takes 7-8 years of planting and caring for a pure star fruit tree to bear fruit. Mr. Nguyen Van Vinh (71 years old) in Thanh Thinh commune (Thanh Chuong) said that his family has 2 star fruit trees. This year, they sold them to traders at the beginning of the season for 7.5 million dong. Photo: Huy Thu

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ky - a long-time tram trader and tram climber in Thanh Tien commune said: "Most of the tall tram trees currently yield about 100 kg of fruit per tree. Some large trees yield 300 kg of fruit, especially, there are trees with 4.50 kg of fruit". It is estimated that each year Thanh Chuong district has hundreds of tons of tram fruit sold to the market. Thanh Chuong tram is delicious, has a unique flavor and can be processed into many delicious dishes such as braised tram, stir-fried tram, sweet and salty tram, tram cooked with fake dog meat, tram sticky rice, tram salted tram... Photo: Huy Thu

After harvesting, black plums are often selected, removing newly ripened, wormy, and indigo fruits to get the best quality. Depending on whether the whole tree is sold to traders or households pick and sell, the plums are consumed in the countryside market or transported far away. Families who pick and sell their own plums often have someone who knows how to climb trees. Last year, due to the epidemic, black plums fell sharply in price (40,000 - 60,000 VND/kg). This year, plums sold at retail in markets in Thanh Chuong district cost around 100,000 VND/kg. Photo: Huy Thu

In Thanh Chuong area, there are many canarium purchasing points. In Thanh Nho commune alone, there are 7-8 points. From these purchasing facilities, black canarium is gathered, packaged and transported to all provinces and cities in the South and the North, mostly to Hanoi. Ms. Tran Thi Thao (44 years old) in Thanh Lien commune said: "Currently, it is the beginning of the season, there are not many canariums, each day the facility can only purchase about 1 ton of canariums, we import all the available amount". Photo: Huy Thu