The discarded young melons are packed in plastic bags for traders to buy. Picture: Tuan Anh
In the ‘capital’ of watermelons in Krong Pa district, farmers are now busy cutting off the tops and selecting the very important fruit. According to the experience of melon growers, 1 root has 3 strings on average and produces many young melons. At this time, a root can only select the best 2 melons, the rest must be cut off to ensure adequate nutrition and help the fruit develop better.
In earlier years, people dumped the cut off young melons in the fields. This year, however, these discarded young melons were suddenly being bought in bulk by traders. Even traders bought them for VND 2,000, higher than the commercial watermelon price of last year’s watermelon crop.
The melon fields in Krong Pa district are at the time of fruit picking. Photo: Tuan Anh
She has been growing melons in Krong Pa District for many years, but Ms. Truong Thi Muoi (Phu Can Municipality) has never seen traders go to the fields to buy discarded young melons. Ms. Muoi was delighted to have just sold nearly VND 2 million of discarded young melons, Ms. Muoi said, “Every year young melons are cut and thrown on the field, no one comes to pick them up. Even my family had to hire someone to collect and throw it away. For some reason, traders came to buy 2,000 VND/kg this year, the price is very high.”
According to Ms. Muoi, the number of young melons removed can reach nearly 2 tons on an average of 1 ha and bring in several million dongs.
Not far from Ms. Muoi’s melon field, Mr. Le Van No’s field (Thang Loi Village, Phu Can Municipality) has also sold more than VND 1 million from discarded young melons.
Mr. No’s family has grown 2 ha of watermelons, of which the number of discarded young melons is up to several tons. “These young melons are thrown away but nobody takes them back, but I don’t understand why traders are coming to buy them this year. My family is very fortunate to earn a few million dongs from discarded melons, which also helps increase income,” Mr No said excitedly.
Young melons are bought at a price of VND 1,500-2,000/kg. Photo: Tuan Anh
According to records, many field owners, although they have sold millions of discarded young melons, are still not interested in collecting them. The reason for this is that there are only a few dozen days left until the commercial melon harvest, so melon field owners focus on tending and pruning the landscape. For melon field owners, the forthcoming harvest, if favorable, can bring in several hundred million dongs instead of earning a few million from young melons neglecting the main melon crop.
This has opened up an opportunity for some people to benefit from collecting young melons in the fields. For the past few days, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy (Phu Can Municipality) carries a scale every afternoon to walk in the fields and collect young melons. As long as the owners of the melon fields are not interested in collecting and selling young melons, Mrs. Thuy will come and ask them to collect them.
“The owners of the melon fields let me come and collect the young melons as long as they don’t step on their melons. Depending on the day, more or less young melons are collected. Today alone I collected 800 kg, sold at 1,500 VND/kg and earned more than 1 million VND,” Ms. Thuy shared.
On average 1 ha, tons of young melons are collected. Photo: Tuan Anh
According to the reporter’s research, the discarded young melons were sold to a single trader, Ms. Tran Thi Tuyen from Ho Chi Minh City. Kon Tum, Kon Tum Province. Ms. Tuyen said she has been collecting young melons for many years and in many places in Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Kon Tum. This is the first time Ms. Tuyen has returned to Krong Pa for shopping.
According to Ms. Tuyen, she bought young melons at VND 2,000/kg about a week ago and now only VND 1,500/kg. She sold these young melons to a trader in Ho Chi Minh City.
“On average, every day I buy dozens of tons of young melons from people in Krong Pa district and then transport them to traders in Ho Chi Minh City. I don’t know what they do with these young melons,” said Tuyen.
Mr. Vo Ngoc Chau, head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Krong Pa District, said, “After hearing information that traders came to buy young melons, we went down to the fields to find out the truth. Young melons were bought from traders. between 1,500 and 2,000 VND/kg.
This is quite strange because in previous years young melons filled the field, no traders came to buy. In any case, selling discarded young melons to help people increase their income is also good,” Mr. Chau informed.