Starfruit from Línxi, Chao’an

Starfruit from Línxi

　　   The starfruit from Línxi, Chao’an, is large, sweet, and commands a high price. For hundreds of years, the town of Línxi in Chao’an County has been cultivating starfruit. Eight years ago, someone dubbed “Quick Knife” “beheaded” the starfruit trees in the fields and grafted them at a high level with “Thai sweet starfruit.” Unexpectedly, the resulting “Chao–Thai hybrid” turned out plump and delicious, quickly winning over the palates of the “thrill-seeking foodies.” In recent years, Línxi starfruit has not only been sold to cities across China but also exported to Southeast Asia.

    According to local farmers, the cultivation of starfruit—especially in the Xikou area of Línxi Town—has long been famous. However, as markets opened up and fruits from other provinces and abroad became more available, locally grown starfruit gradually fell out of favor due to their smaller size and slightly bitter taste. The once-renowned “hometown of starfruit” found itself in an awkward position. In the mid-1990s, some residents of Línxi traveled to Thailand and tasted the large, sweet “Thai starfruit.” They thought, if only the local fruit could be like this, surely there would be no lack of buyers. So they brought back some seedlings and grafted them onto local starfruit trees. Before long, trees were covered in starfruit identical to those in Thailand—big and sweet. When first introduced to the market, because few people knew about this “newcomer,” it was not well received. But a year or two later, as more people traveled abroad and international trade increased, people not only learned that large starfruit is a famous Thai specialty, but also realized after tasting imported Thai starfruit that neither the texture nor juice could compare to that of the grafted Línxi variety. This led not only to a grafting craze eight years ago, but also to a surge in the fame and value of Línxi’s “Thai starfruit.” Wholesale prices rose from just a few jiao per kilogram in the past to a peak of over 6 yuan, with retail prices reaching as high as 20 yuan per kilogram at their peak.

    Today, vast starfruit orchards can be seen all over Línxi. According to a fruit farmer surnamed Liu, nearly all the farmland in the eight villages of the Xikou area and half of that in the mountainous inland region are planted with starfruit. The largest growers own over 10 mu (about 1.65 acres), while even the smallest plots cover one or two mu. Moreover, after years of experimentation, many fruit farmers have learned...