Giant farm produce and strangely shaped and colored fruit and vegetables are becoming increasingly popular in Vietnam. For example, farmers are seeing high demand for goods like giant pumpkins, giant squash, black tomatoes and pepino watermelons.
Giant pumpkins, weighing between 50 and 100 kilos, from seeds grown in the US, are a common sight on the family farm of Le Huu Phan in Da Lat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.
Phan said that, in his 4,000m2 garden, he has devoted up to 3,000m2 for growing vegetable seedlings to supply to other farmers. The remaining 1,000m2 is for trial plantation of strange fruits and vegetables that Vietnam does not have, including giant pumpkins from the US, purple kohlrabi, the 7-color cabbage, the black tomatoes and others.
According to Phan, the cost of cultivation of these vegetables and fruits is no higher than that of domestic varieties, so he sold them at reasonable prices, from VND40,000 to VND50,000/product or per kilo.
Currently, Phan only sells his unique products from his garden. He has not considered selling them to supermarkets or expanding the garden because of the huge cost for land.
Phan said in 2012, he read an article on the Internet about American farmers using machines to harvest the giant pumpkins, which weigh over 1 ton. He asked a friend in the US to buy the seeds for him and then he planted them in his own 150sq.m garden. The pumpkin grew well and yielded fruits after six months.
Currently, there are two varieties of giant pumpkins in Phan’s garden, yellow and white, with the largest fruit weighing 50kg. This product has sold very well. People usually buy giant pumpkins for display. Phan has not sold pumpkins by weight as is usual, but priced them from VND3 to VND4 million ($150-$200). On an area of 150m2, Pan harvested 10 to 15 giant pumpkins/crop.
Farmers in Da Lat began planting black tomatoes, a much sought-after delicacy in Vietnam, in 2014, and they are attracting high prices, because of their exotic appearance and touted health properties, and because storms have reduced the general supply.
Regular tomatoes sell for VND7,000 to VND12,000 a kilogram, while black tomatoes attract prices of VND65,000 to VND140,000 a kilogram.
Pepino watermelon
Small, oval and marked with purplish striping, the Pepino melon is not truly a melon at all, but the fruit from an evergreen shrub in Peru.
Nguyen Dinh, who first brought the seeds to Vietnam, said that he grows pepino melons in greenhouses using high-tech methods. Dinh harvests 30-40 kilograms of melons each day, earning at least VND1.8 million ($80).
The fruits are sold mainly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. As supplies are limited, a kilogram of pepino melons can be sold at local markets for VND200,000 ($9).
Read more: english.vietnamnet.vn
