La Hiên Sugar-apple | Product of Vietnam

The sugar-apple or sweet-sop is the fruit of Annona squamosa which the most common species of Annona. In Vietnam, the sugar-apple is known as na (Northern dialiect) or mãng cầu (Southern dialect). Like other tropical fruits, the sugar-apple tree is widely cultivated in southern Vietnam, but it is also grown in some areas in northern Vietnam like Sơn La or Thái Nguyên provinces.

La Hiên is the name of a commune in Võ Nhai district of Thái Nguyên province. The sugar-apple tree was planted here soem decades ago, but it has been commercially cultivated since mid 2010s.

The mountanous soil in La Hiên is proven to be suitable for growing sugar-apple trees. And over the past decades, La Hiên has become the largest sugar-apple growing area in Thái Nguyên province. Compared to other areas in the province, La Hiên sugar-apple is large, uniform in sized, sweet, fragrant, cool, with few seeds and thin skin. Those characteristics make the fruit a favorie choice for many consumers.

Cultivation

In order to have delicious and beautiful sugar apples, local growers in La Hiên have to strictly follow the farming processes. One of the important steps in the horticulture process is the pollination stage. This stage is usually carried out around late May, and early June every year. According to many farmers here, the pollination of sugar-apple flowers helps increase the fruit density and quality, which makes the fruits can be sold at a higher price.

The local farmers in La Hiên also noted that producing sugar-apples according to VietGAP standards is not difficult, but it requires the gardeners to follow the correct process from care to preservation and harvesting. VietGAP is a localized Vietnamese version of GlobalGAP standards.

The annual output of sugar apples La Hiên commune is about 3,000 tons. La Hiên sugar-apple is one of several agricultural products which has protected geographic identity.