Nghe An black star fruit has a good harvest and good price, but cannot be picked in time to sell.

Black canarium is grown mainly in home gardens and hill gardens. Most of the canarium trees that produce a lot of fruit today are purebred, perennial, tall trees with wide canopies and many fruits, scattered in mountainous communes of old districts such as Anh Son, Nam Dan, Do Luong, Tan Ky, etc., but are most concentrated in the old Thanh Chuong district, with an estimated output of several hundred tons of fruit per year.

Mr. Nguyen The Ha (65 years old) in Hoa Quan commune (Thanh Huong commune, old Thanh Chuong district) said: This season, his garden has 19 canarium trees bearing fruit, of which 16 trees have been bearing fruit for more than 20 years. After keeping some trees to harvest for food, he sold most of the canarium garden to traders for 50 million VND.

The expected amount of fruit harvested from the whole garden is about 1.3 - 1.4 tons, 3 - 4 quintals higher than last year.

According to Mr. Ha, this year the weather is quite favorable, with a lot of rain, but no hail, few extreme storms, and scorching sun like previous years. The canarium trees flower and bear fruit in abundance. The canarium trees in his garden bear fruit, large, even, and beautiful. At this time, the canarium trees are ripe, and the strong sunshine creates favorable conditions for harvesting.

The canarium fruit is green when it first sets fruit, turning black when it is ripe, covered with a thin layer of powder. From July to October is the harvest season for black canarium. When the canarium is ripe, it must be harvested at the right time. If you harvest it early, there will be many green fruits. If you harvest it too late, the canarium fruit will be covered with a lot of resin, called "canarium stinks".

Mr. Nguyen Van Giap in Tam Dong commune (Thanh My commune, old Thanh Chuong district) said: His family has sold half of the canarium garden to traders for 20 million VND, and the family will harvest the other half. Currently, the canarium is ripe.

These days, when visiting the mountainous communes in the province, people who work as canarium pickers have entered the harvest season. They go in groups of 3-5 people each, carrying ladders, specialized poles, basins, baskets, nets, tarpaulins, bags...

The canarium harvest season has created jobs for many workers. Communes such as Cat Ngan, Tam Dong, Yen Xuan, Do Luong... each have hundreds of people harvesting canarium. Men and boys specialize in climbing to pick, women specialize in picking. Canarium pickers are paid 500-700 thousand VND/day, canarium pickers are paid 300 thousand VND/day.

Experience shows that people who work as canarium climbers must be brave and in good health. Canarium trees have tall trunks, wide canopies, and small fruits that are very difficult to harvest. Canarium pickers must climb the trees and use poles to poke the fruit. Climbing the trees is difficult, but poking the canarium fruit on the trees is even more difficult. Canarium branches are brittle and break easily, so careful canarium climbers often wear safety belts to prevent accidents.

When harvesting canarium in steep, grassy, ​​bushy terrain, canarium pickers often spread nets and tarps around the base of the tree. Thanks to the large nets, harvesting canarium near ponds and fences becomes simpler, less effort is needed to pick the fruit, and less loss occurs.

After being picked, canarium fruit is usually put into airy mesh bags for transport. According to the people, on sunny days, people often pick canarium fruit early. The sooner they pick, the better, both for their health and to ensure that the canarium fruit does not ripen in the sun. Because there are few canarium fruits in the early season, groups of canarium fruit pickers sell all they can. Traders sometimes have to come to the garden, wait for the fruit to be picked, then buy.

Mr. Hoang Van Thuc from Kim Bang commune, who is climbing canarium in Bich Hao commune, said: This canarium crop, the two brothers spent several hundred million dong to buy young canarium. They have only been picking for 3 days. The two brothers climbed to pick, and the two wives were in charge of picking the fruit.

Each morning of hard work will pick 100-1200 canarium fruits. Usually, canarium fruit pickers only pick in the morning, and rest in the afternoon to regain strength. The quantity of canarium fruits purchased is large, so the group has to pick for several months to finish. At the beginning of the season, they choose beautiful ripe trees to pick, and in the middle of the season, when the canarium fruits are fully ripe, they pick them all at once.

According to those who work as climbers of canarium trees, every year, when canarium trees are newly blooming or bearing young fruit, canarium traders go to the localities, looking for houses with canarium trees to buy. Once they have agreed on a price with the homeowner, they leave a small “deposit” waiting for the canarium trees to ripen, then pay and harvest. In the past, canarium trees were cheap, requiring little capital. Now, canarium trees are expensive, requiring a lot of capital and must be purchased early to have canarium trees to climb.

Every canarium season, a group of canarium traders must spend hundreds of millions of dong to buy canarium. When the canarium ripens, the canarium climbing groups harvest themselves or hire others to do so. Mr. Tran Van Mao (50 years old), a long-time canarium climber in Cat Ngan commune, shared: This year, his canarium picking group spent nearly 300 million dong to buy about 80 canarium trees in the communes of the two old districts of Thanh Chuong and Anh Son, to harvest gradually over several months.

There are some ancient, fruit-bearing canarium trees that he bought for 15 million VND, and harvested about 3-4 quintals of fruit. A typical example is the 'giant' canarium tree of Mr. Dao and Mrs. Chuyen's family in Yen Xuan commune (Linh Son commune, old Anh Son district).

Mr. Mao said: The canarium fruit crop is good, productivity has increased, while the price of young canarium fruit is not much different from last year, but the wholesale price of ripe canarium fruit is high, so people who "sell whole canarium trees" make a profit.

Black plum is delicious, fatty, has a unique flavor, can be processed into many attractive dishes, and is loved by many people.

Nghe An black canarium specialty not only serves local demand but is also transported to provinces and cities in the South and North for consumption. Online sales channels are used quite effectively by canarium traders.

The retail price of canarium in rural markets ranges from 100,000 to 135,000 VND/kg, depending on the type of canarium. The good season and good price of canarium are bringing excitement to canarium growers, canarium climbers and canarium traders in the province.