Expensive product causing a stir on the online market, selling price doubled
Mac kham has a sweet outer shell, crunchy with an initial sour taste and a sweet aftertaste... like sucking on a dried fruit that makes women crazy. This wild fruit suddenly became a fever on the "online market", the selling price is twice as expensive.
Enjoying the last mac kham fruits that she just bought from a street vendor, Ms. Phuong Minh Chau in Huynh Thuc Khang (Dong Da, Hanoi) shared that in the past few days, surfing social networks, she saw wild mac kham fruits being sold everywhere. The appearance is not eye-catching, the skin is rough, the fruit is small like a plum. However, people describe the flavor of this fruit as extremely special.
This morning, on the way from home to work, she saw a street vendor selling expensive fruit so she stopped to buy some. Initially, she only intended to buy 2-3 taels to try it out. Unexpectedly, after tasting one fruit, she was so fascinated by its flavor that she bought 1kg for 80,000 VND.
Ms. Chau is a person who loves to eat fresh fruit. Normally, the outer skin of fruits usually has no taste, but the skin of the mac kham is sweet. The fruit is crispy, the initial taste is slightly sour, the final taste is sweet. Just eat one mac kham fruit, 10 minutes later you can still feel the sweetness in your throat. Dipping it with salt will enhance the flavor of the mac kham even more.
“Eating mac kham feels like eating a dried apricot. However, mac kham is crunchy and fresh so it tastes better,” Ms. Chau shared.
In the past few days, mac kham has suddenly become a hot topic on the online market. Accordingly, mac kham (also known as wild tamarind) is being sold in all online markets, big and small, with the advertisement that the outer shell is sweet, and when bitten, it will taste a little sour and have a sweet aftertaste.
This wild fruit costs from 60,000 to 80,000 VND/kg.
Ms. Dinh Thi Ngan - an online fruit seller in Thanh Xuan (Hanoi) - admitted that in the past few days, the amount of mac kham sold has increased sharply. She said that mac kham is a wild fruit found in abundance in the mountainous areas of Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Ha Giang. Since September every year, people often go into the forest to pick mac kham to sell. Because this fruit is delicious and has many health benefits.
“At the beginning of the season, I sold green mac kham for only 30,000-35,000 VND/kg. Now, in the middle of the season, the price of dried mac kham is 70,000 VND/kg, twice as expensive,” she said. However, she still sells 80-90 kg of mac kham every day.
According to Ms. Ngan, most customers only order 1-2 kg to try out of curiosity. Regular customers usually order 3-5 kg because this fruit can be stored in the refrigerator for quite a long time. In addition to being eaten fresh, mac kham can also be processed into many different dishes such as: marinated mac kham, shaken with salt and chili, soaked in sugar... "I have been selling mac kham for 4 years now, but this is the first time I see that mac kham fruit is consumed so well," she said.
Mr. Bui Trung Hieu, a wholesaler in Lang Son, shared that there were days when he sold nearly 1 ton of goods.
In Lang Son area, people go to the mountains to pick mac kham and Hieu's family buys it. In previous years, he did not sell much fresh mac kham because few people ate it. Therefore, the goods he bought from his people were often used to make marinated mac kham, similar to pickled eggplant.
The longer the fruit is marinated, the better it tastes. It can be kept in the refrigerator for several months. However, after marinating, he sells wholesale to customers in the provinces, with Hanoi customers accounting for the majority.
This year, the amount of fresh mac kham sold in wholesale has increased. In particular, from the end of November until now, he has sold 2/3 of the collected goods to wholesale customers, the rest is marinated and canned for sale.
“The wholesaler said that mac kham is causing a stir, many people buy it fresh so the amount they import has increased compared to before,” said Mr. Hieu. According to him, when eating fresh, you should choose mac kham fruits with tanned skin. These are ripe fruits, ensuring crunchiness, a slightly sour taste and a sweet aftertaste. Tanned mac kham skin also has a special sweet taste. Fruits with green skin have a more sour taste, suitable for marinating.
