Summer for Chinese, is a carnival to eat watermelon, black beauty, 8424 and other varieties of watermelon have been listed, so why Chinese so keen to eat melon in the summer?
Chinese love for watermelon has been around since ancient times, and the scene of eating melon was recorded on the liao dynasty tomb mural discovered in Inner Mongolia in 1995.
It can be said that since the Liao Dynasty, watermelon has become a "necessary artifact" for nobles to quench their thirst in summer, but at the same time, in the era of relatively backward agricultural cultivation in ancient times, watermelon has not been planted in a large area, so in ancient times watermelon is a valuable thing, only the royal family can "show off watermelon" without worry, and it is difficult for ordinary civilians to eat melons in ordinary times. Therefore, civilian families will pay more attention to eating watermelon, and over time, eating melon in the summer has become an indispensable activity for Chinese.
Nowadays Chinese not only eat melon first, but also grow melon first, according to the World Food and Agriculture Organization data, China's annual output of watermelon is 80 million tons, accounting for 70% of the world's total watermelon production.
With the development of the mainland's social economy, more and more families can realize the freedom to eat melons, and all the reasons behind this are due to Grandma Wu Mingzhu, the "Western Melon King", who can be said to be the founder of the development of the modern melon industry in the mainland.
In the 62 years she has been engaged in watermelon breeding, she has cultivated more than 30 varieties, including tulip melons, emerald melons, unicorn melons and so on. It is also with the efforts of Grandma Wu Mingzhu and her scientific research team that watermelon can be greatly improved three seasons a year, and the quality and yield of watermelon can be greatly improved.
And the most famous of them is 8424, I believe that the small partners who have eaten this melon are all conquered by its sweet, crisp taste, and this is also Wu Mingzhu's grandmother's favorite melon type.
Eating a refreshing watermelon in the hot summer is common in China, but few people eat melons abroad, why is this?
In fact, it is not difficult to find that there are almost no fruits such as watermelon on the table of foreigners, and the most important point of this is "expensive".
In foreign countries, the price of a pound of watermelon is even higher than the price of a pound of beef. In New York and Washington, D.C., the price of a pound of watermelon is about $7, which translates into 42 yuan, and 42 yuan is enough for us to buy a pound of beef. And the watermelons they sell are all skinned, which means spending a pound of money to buy half a pound of skins, which is why Americans don't want to show off melons in the summer, because it's not worth it.
In addition to the United States, like our neighbors Japan and South Korea, in fact, are very fond of eating watermelon in the summer, but none of these two countries will be like us, when buying melon payment, without blinking an eye, and in their view, buying a watermelon at a time is simply extremely luxurious.
Because an ordinary watermelon in the Japanese market is nearly four or five thousand yen, converted into RMB is about two hundred yuan, and if it is a special gift melon, the price will be as high as tens of thousands of yen, equivalent to several thousand yuan, so the average Japanese family to buy watermelon will only buy a petal, how much to eat, because what is wasted is money.
The reason for this situation is that watermelons cannot be planted in large quantities in their countries, because the land is relatively poor, and it is impossible to grow delicious melons, which will also affect the yield of other crops. And the rarity is expensive, and the price is naturally high.
Chinese in the summer, they began to frantically show off melons, and many foreigners could only look forward to "melons" and sigh, so why would they rather not eat melons than import watermelons from China?
As the world's largest watermelon producer, China's annual watermelon production can reach 60 million tons, and for some countries that can't eat watermelon, this figure is simply astronomical and unimaginable. But even so, many Western countries will not import watermelons from China.
This is mainly because foreign export trade is generally based on bulk goods, that is to say, a container may have to hold more than a dozen tons of watermelon, and watermelon crops are very prone to corruption in a confined space, and a corruption will all be corrupt, plus the shipping time is weeks or even months, watermelon on the road once bumped is easy to break.
And this will only produce two results, the first is that the watermelon has arrived but the season of eating watermelon has also passed, people's demand for watermelon is reduced, merchants are prone to losses, and naturally they will not import watermelon; Second, it is possible to import 100 tons of watermelon, only bump into each other on the road, and find that only 10 tons of watermelon can be eaten at the station, and such a high rate of cargo damage also deters those who want to import watermelon.
In addition, watermelon is not a necessity for some foreigners, although the watermelon has a good anti-heat function, but they also have their own unique way to relieve the heat. Spain will install a large number of spray systems to send a cool touch to the citizens in the hot summer, and Germany will send their families to the forest by the lake to escape the heat and so on. So for them, watermelon is not a necessity, so it is understandable not to import a large number of watermelons.