The watermelons in the shape of gold bars, squares that are both beautiful and meaningful are very popular with customers during Tet.
During the Lunar New Year 2023, Mr. Tran Van Cung (58 years old, in Phong Hoa commune, Lai Vung district, Dong Thap province) planted regarding 4,000 Kim Hong watermelons. In which, he selected 600 strings with well-developed fruit to shape.
However, due to the erratic weather and heavy rain, the number of watermelons in shape did not meet his expectations, so this New Year, Mr. Cuong only released 100 square watermelons and 100 gold bullion watermelons of grades 1 and 400. type 2 fruit.
Mr. Tran Van Cung’s watermelon brand has been recognized by the National Office of Intellectual Property (Ministry of Science and Technology) as an exclusive trademark. With two main product lines, golden ingot watermelon and square watermelon, unique in the country. Photo: Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper.
Sharing regarding the chance to create watermelons, Mr. Cuong said that his family has a tradition of growing watermelons for Tet, so he also followed in his parents’ footsteps. In 2000, while digging a ditch and using two wooden boards to block the ditch, there was a young watermelon stuck in the middle but he didn’t notice. On the day of the melon harvest, he suddenly discovered that the watermelon was pressed by two wooden boards to form two planes, but the fruit was still beautiful and undamaged, so he came up with the idea of putting the melon into the test mold.
At first, he just made simple square watermelons out of wooden molds. Then to improve the product value, he carved words into the mold to make the watermelon more eye-catching. With the principle of compressing the fruit in a wooden mold to shape, Mr. Cuong continues to launch a golden ingot-shaped watermelon product to serve the needs of customers for Tet.
“At first, it was difficult to try because I had no experience, the fruit I chose was not standard, damaged a lot. After that, I carefully and meticulously calculated from the date of sowing, the day I put it in the shaping box, the most important thing. is the stage of care and monitoring to promptly handle pests and diseases,” said Mr Online newspaper.
Theo Newspaper The watermelon variety chosen by Mr. Cung to grow is Kim Hong melon with yellow skin and red flesh. He said it took many years of experimenting with many different watermelon varieties, but only Kim Hong watermelons (which are thick-skinned, high-sweet melons that can be stored for 1-2 months) have achieved the best results. criteria that this farmer wants. Besides, to get a unique watermelon, weather factors and shaping molds also play a very important role. The watermelon mold must be a good bearing so that during the development process, the watermelon does not break the mold. Therefore, unlike gardeners in the West, Mr. Cuong invented a watermelon-shaped mold made of wooden spokes, which has both good bearing capacity and high durability from which to produce beautiful watermelons. Very popular with customers.
Watermelons shaped like gold bars and square watermelons “suck” on Tet holiday. Photo: Newspapers
“The market this year is more exciting, the goods go very quickly, now sold out and 80% delivered,” said Mr. Cuong.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phan, living in O Mon district, Can Tho, said that looking to buy watermelons in the shape of gold bars to give to friends and relatives because of the uniqueness, meaning of Tet and creating such a shape, farmers have to give up. very enthusiastic.
“In my opinion, it is very difficult to make such a melon, I buy it for my loved ones, hoping for a happy, full and complete new year,” said Mr. Phan.
Mr. Cuong’s shaped watermelon is popular with traders and customers because of its unique design and the distillation time lasts 1-2 months. Watermelon in gold grade 1 is sold for 1.5 million VND/pair, square watermelons are priced at 1 million VND/pair. The price of type 2 shaped watermelons is 600,000 VND/pair.
