300,000 VND for a 'letter spitting' mango

Mr. Vo Trung Thanh - Head of the Fruit Shaped Production Club in Tan Phu Commune, Chau Thanh District, Hau Giang Province said that this year his group launched an artistic mango product using a new technique. Instead of using molds to shape and shape the mango or carving on the fruit as before, his club chose the technique of creating colors and "releasing letters" using sunlight.

According to Mr. Thanh, to have a beautiful "lettering" mango, he and the artisans have to take meticulous care. When the fruit is as big as a big toe, use mango wrappers bought from Taiwan to protect and help the mango color become beautiful yellow. When the mango begins to mature, cut the fruit wrappers and shape them by joining letters on the fruit. If you want a yellow background with green letters, cover the light, and if you want a green background with green letters, let the light shine on the lettering frame. As for yellow background with red letters, there must be a special method and these types of fruits cost 300,000 VND each.

"Although the mangoes are only the size of a fist, I have received orders for up to 3,000 fruits. Depending on the shape, each mango costs between VND200,000 and VND300,000," said Mr. Thanh, adding that each mango will weigh between 1 and 1.2 kg. This is a Taiwanese mango variety, so the fruit is of good quality and large. In addition to being beautiful to display, this mango variety also stays fresh for a long time and has quite good quality flesh.

Before Mr. Thanh, since 2016 in the West, there have been a number of gardeners who have successfully tested the method of printing letters on mangoes, papayas, coconuts, etc. Although the method is the same, each place applies its own improvement techniques, so the quality is quite different, especially in terms of the color of the letters on the fruit.

Along with the artistic mango, Mr. Thanh also said that this year, he will not create watermelons in the shape of gourds or gold bars, but only grapefruits. However, this year's season has not been favorable, so his club can only produce about 6,000 fruits.

"This year, the grapefruit yield is low and many are damaged. Especially in Hau Giang, the quantity of grapefruit is low, so this year the club has joined forces with Vinh Long and Soc Trang regions. However, the weather has caused the flowers to fall, so the goods are scarce," said Mr. Thanh, revealing that this year's price has increased by 25-30% compared to last year and will increase further when the adjustment ends at the end of the 11th lunar month. Currently, gourd grapefruit costs 300,000 - 1.2 million VND per fruit (depending on size and shape).

Mr. Thanh added that the number of orders has reached 70%. This year, customers placed orders quite early. However, wholesalers only ordered 400 - 600 fruits, not as many as in previous years.