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Korean farmers grow a kind of extra-large strawberry known as the King's Berry, known for being not only bigger but sweeter than ordinary strawberries.
Recently, South Korea's agricultural agency found several ways to improve their quality and boost exports of them.
Cho Sung-min has more.

These strawberries grown in Korea are called King's Berries.
They're even bigger than an egg and have a higher Brix level than the a typical strawberry you find in the store.
The Brix level indicates a fruit's sweetness.
Growing King's Berries is hard because they're prone to a variety of fungal diseases like like powdery mildew, so a group of local scientists recently came up with a way to boost their yields.

Their solution is to spray the strawberry leaves with a green freshwater algae called chlorella.
Chlorella acts as a protective shield that fends off pests, making the berries much firmer and sweeter.

(Korean) 남자
"We improved the strawberries' hardness and sugar level, and got their leaves to grow thicker. It's also much less likely they are exposed to banned agricultural substances."

Another way of improving quality is the use of beehives.
Farmers found that bees naturally pollinate the strawberry seeds when they land on flowers.
They say this method reduces the likelihood of them having defects compared to when the seeds are pollenated manually.

They also developed a new packaging method for shipping the strawberries abroad.
The fruits are packaged in a sturdier container made by a 3D printer and a latex material.
This protects the berries from getting mushy and preserves their firm texture while in transit.

(Korean) 남자
"Our studies were based on King's Berries that got soft too easily. We will see whether we can apply this method to other fruits."

South Korea's agricultural agency says these methods have driven exports of King's Berries up 90% now that they've started to be shipped to the U.S. and Thailand.
Cho Sung-min, Arirang News.

#Kings_Berry_strawberries #fruits #Arirang_News

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2023-01-26, 12:00 (KST)

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