Extremely hot, cooling vegetables and fruits 'burn' according to

With the heat of 37-38 degrees Celsius in early summer, Hanoians have had to look for cooling foods.

The sudden increase in demand caused the prices of foods and refreshments to immediately skyrocket.

At Nghia Tan, Co Nhue, Dong Xa, Dai Tu markets... on the morning of May 10, cooling foods were very popular despite the sharp increase in prices.

Ms. Lan, a small trader specializing in selling field crabs at Nghia Tan market (Cau Giay) said that yesterday the price of crabs was only 130,000 VND/kg but today it has increased to 140,000 VND/kg, large ones 150,000 VND/kg. Although it is 2 times more expensive, Ms. Lan said that it still sells well due to the hot weather.

“Yesterday I sold 80kg of field crabs, and today by 9am I had already sold out more than 50kg of crabs. The products are selling well, so I had to hire two more people to prepare the crabs in time for customers to pick them up,” she said.

Similarly, according to the reporter's records at the markets, the prices of many types of vegetables with cooling properties have also gradually increased. For example: amaranth, Malabar spinach, and Malabar spinach all increased by 1,000 VND/bunch, up to 6,000 VND/bunch; jute increased by 2,000 VND/bunch, up to 6,000 VND/bunch; squash increased by 5,000 VND/fruit to 20,000-25,000 VND/fruit depending on the type; squash also increased by 5,000 VND/kg to 25,000 VND/kg; squash 15,000 VND/kg, up 3,000 VND/kg; lemon skyrocketed to 40,000 VND/kg...

Not only food, the price of cooling fruits has also started to fluctuate and increase in the past two days.

At Dai Tu market, Saigon watermelon costs 22,000 VND/kg, an increase of 2,000 VND/kg; seedless watermelon increases by 5,000 VND/kg to 30,000-35,000 VND/kg depending on the type; yellow melon costs 60,000 VND/kg, an increase of 10,000 VND/kg; good quality oranges cost 70,000 VND/kg, Saigon tangerines cost 65,000 VND/kg...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen, a fruit vendor on Dai Tu Street, boasted that since yesterday her oranges have been very popular. Everyone has bought a few kilos to eat gradually, so the amount of oranges sold has doubled. "Before, I could only sell about 60-80 kilos a day, but today I bought 150 kilos and they were all sold out in one day," Ms. Yen said.

Ms. Yen explained that the increase in fruit prices was partly due to scarcity, and partly because wholesale stores saw that the products were popular and automatically increased their prices to make a profit. Therefore, at retail markets, sellers also had to increase their prices.

“Every year, the hotter the weather, the higher the price of cooling fruits. That’s the rule. The full moon day in a few days may see prices go up even higher if the weather continues to be hot like this,” Ms. Yen predicted./.

According to vov