The secret to selling watermelons at high prices during the falling season of a Nghe An farmer

This year's melon crop was a bumper one but the price was low. The melons bore fruit evenly, beautifully, and had high yields, but the market was flooded, with slow sales in many places and even no buyers. However, under the same conditions, Mr. Chu Van Quan was still able to sell melons at high prices, and he sold them continuously, from one batch to another. The secret lies in the fact that he farmed like a real businessman.

Right from the start of the melon season, Mr. Quan proactively chose the yellow-fleshed melon variety - a type of melon that is popular in the market thanks to its thin skin, unique color, crunchy and sweet taste.

"Lam River alluvial melons are famous for their deliciousness, but if we grow a mass variety of melons and no one can tell the difference, it will be difficult to compete. I choose a unique variety, ensure quality, grow according to VietGAP, and minimize pesticides to create a difference," he said. The notable point is that he does not harvest en masse but divides it into many small batches, only harvesting when the fruit reaches the right sweetness and ripeness, avoiding the situation of "having a good harvest but not being able to sell in time", causing surplus in the market.

However, product quality alone is not enough. What makes the biggest difference is the way Mr. Quan sells his products. Instead of depending on traders and waiting for them to buy at low prices, he proactively opened his own sales channel for himself and for his fellow farmers. Taking advantage of social networks, he often livestreams right in the middle of the melon field, sharing the care process, real images of the plants, and introducing the products to build trust with customers.

Each livestream has hundreds of views, along with many orders, from individual consumers to large wholesalers. "Good melons will still have buyers, we just have to find a way to let customers know. If we tell the story of the melon, tell the story of the fields, then customers will believe and buy," Mr. Quan shared.

What is admirable is that he not only sells to his family but also helps people in the area. Seeing that many of his neighbors' melon fields are of good quality but difficult to sell, Mr. Quan took the opportunity to film more videos introducing the garden, using his livestream channel to connect traders to the fields to buy.

Some days, he livestreams 3-4 garden locations, each with a few tons of melons, helping people sell them quickly. In just one night, dozens of tons of melons were collected by traders right in the fields for people.

Mr. Nguyen Nhu Huy, a trader from Thanh Hoa shared: “I learned about the melon fields in Thuong Tan Loc alluvial plain (Nam Dan) through Mr. Quan's livestream. Nam Dan melons are of good quality, sweet, crunchy, and beautiful in appearance. Seeing their reputation, I traveled more than 100 km from Thanh Hoa to buy them. Now, we traders mainly find sources of goods online, especially Facebook or Zalo.”

Not only stopping at social networks, Mr. Quan also drives a small truck to transport melons to the city, selling at traditional markets, residential areas, clean agricultural product stores, mini supermarkets...

He also proactively built a network of online sales collaborators in all provinces, helping melons to be consumed everywhere, no longer depending on the surrounding area. There were times when the melons had not yet been cut but there were already pre-orders. Customers trusted him because he did the right thing: real products, real images, real quality.

It can be seen that Mr. Quan's way of doing things is not at all sophisticated or difficult to replicate. The problem is the mindset in production and business; from growing the product to proactively bringing the product to consumers. They are all melon farmers, in the same crop season, but the results are very different.

In the context of unpredictable weather and rapidly changing consumer demand, agricultural production cannot remain fragmented and spontaneous. It is necessary to reorganize production according to specialized areas, select market-oriented varieties, apply clean processes, and most importantly, proactively link to consumption. Digital technology is no longer something too far away for farmers - as long as they know how to learn and apply it properly, it is a very powerful tool.