Giant fruit bonanza sweeps Ho Chi Minh City ahead of Lunar New Year
Giant fruit bonanza sweeps Ho Chi Minh City ahead of Lunar New Year
Multiple varieties of oversized fruits are available for sale in Ho Chi Minh City to meet the demand for making ancestral worship offerings during the forthcoming Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, which is due in February.
A giant grapefruit weighs some eight kilograms. Photo: Vu Tin |
Fruits like grapefruit and Buddha’s hands are commonly used as offerings and gifts in the southern region on Tet.
Ky Da Grapefruit, a big-sized type of pomelo, is three or four times heavier than regular ones. The extraordinary variety has thick bright yellow skin and features a fragrant scent.
A massive Ky Da grapefruit weighs up to 10 kilograms, carrying a price tag of over VND500,000 (US$20.3).
Despite its high prices, the fruit is favored by many residents in the southern metropolis.
Vu Tin, who has traded Ky Da grapefruit for six years, and owns a shop on Pham Van Bach Street in Tan Binh District, said that difficulties in transport and purchase make the fruit costly.
This grapefruit variety is mainly grown in mountainous areas in northern Vietnam.
Due to limited grapefruit cultivation, traders must come to farming households in the northern region to purchase the fruit and collect it in large amounts, as well as transport them to Ho Chi Minh City to serve the Tet holiday.
Besides, such big-sized weighty grapefruits make it tough for transport. To prevent stalks and leaves from dropping, these grapefruits divided in small volumes are transported by road.
Tin is purchasing 1,000 grapefruits for sales during this Tet holiday, down some 50 percent against last year.
He also advised residents to carefully select these fruits as many traders even cut unripe ones and collected grapefruits falling down on the ground.
They attached fake stalks to these low-quality grapefruits to put them on sale, he added.
Apart from Ky Da grapefruit, Buddha’s hand fruit is also a favorite on Tet.
The fruit, hailing from the northern region, is often placed on five-fruit trays during Vietnam’s biggest traditional holiday.
A Buddha’s hand fruit is priced from VND70,000 ($2.83) - VND100,000 ($4.05). However, the price of a massive fruit stands at VND300,000 ($12.1) or higher.
In Ho Chi Minh City, many fruit stores have been importing fruits with big sizes, such as cherries, to serve residents during the upcoming holiday.
Tasmanian cherries grown in Australia are flooding the southern market.
“We have directly imported cherries from farmers in Australia to ensure reasonable prices for the fruit as well as to grasp sufficient information about farming and harvesting processes,” said a representative of Kingfoodmart, a fruit store which is putting cherries on sale.
Cherries are stored in refrigerated containers and transported by air to Vietnam.
