Priced at over half a million/kg, mangosteen traders are "forced to death" and raking in the money.

Sell tons of green mangosteen every day

In less than a month, Ms. Thu Ha (a fruit shop owner in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) has sold dozens of tons of green mangosteen (young, unripe fruit). Ms. Ha said that the trend of making "deadly" mangosteen salad is becoming popular on social networks, helping her shop sell non-stop.

gỏi măng cụt — Ms. Ha has to hire many workers to peel and process the green mangosteen to sell every day (Photo: Provided by the character).

The price of unpeeled green mangosteen is 85,000 VND/kg, while the peeled type costs up to 500,000 VND/kg. Every day, her facility has to hire 30-35 workers to peel 500kg to 1 ton of mangosteen.

This is also the daily sales volume of Ms. Ha’s shop. Customers who buy mangosteen mostly come from the southern provinces, especially around Ho Chi Minh City. Not only retail customers, Ms. Ha also supplies to wholesalers and restaurants in the area.

Ms. Dieu’s green mangosteen business (living in Binh Phuoc province) has also been making a lot of money recently. According to Ms. Dieu, pre-peeled green mangosteen, grade 1, can cost up to 550,000 VND/kg. Meanwhile, the price of ripe mangosteen is only 45-65,000 VND/kg.

"The price is so high but buyers are all okay with it, not afraid because this dish is 'hot'. The crunchy, delicious, and novel mangosteen salad is on the rise," said Ms. Dieu.

The processing stage is very elaborate, every 100kg of mangosteen requires 4 people to peel it every day. Everyone has to work hard from 6am to 8pm.

As the owner of a garden specializing in wholesale "deadly" mangosteen in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, Ms. Hoai Linh admitted that the price of mangosteen is currently higher than usual. The reason is that at the beginning of the season, mangosteen is still rare, so it is not possible to collect a large quantity to supply in time. Especially this year, the trend of eating mangosteen salad is popular, and traders collect pre-peeled mangosteen to sell, making this fruit even more in demand.

The demand for green mangosteen is currently higher than the same period last year. In just one week, Ms. Linh's garden sold 200 kg of green mangosteen.

"There are customers who order 100kg at a time, sometimes I am afraid that the mangosteen will not bear fruit in time to sell," Linh shared. Previously, Linh was one of the first people to post content introducing how to process green mangosteen into salad on social networks. Linh said that when it is in season, mangosteen prices will drop a lot.

"I posted content about green mangosteen salad to attract buyers. Many people only realized after watching that mangosteen can be eaten raw or cooked. The new dish makes mangosteen 'hot', helping sellers maintain prices," said Ms. Linh.

Elaborate processing

According to Ms. Ha, the "dead" mangosteen is sold at a high price because the peeling process is very difficult. More than 30 workers at her facility have to work hard all day, completely by hand, without using any supporting machinery.

During processing, the worker must peel the mangosteen under running water to remove the sap from the fruit. If the sap gets on the fruit, the flesh will turn black and taste bitter. To avoid calluses, the peeler must also wear gloves for many hours at a time.

But for every 4kg of green mangosteen, only 1kg of pulp can be obtained. The seller must choose quality mangosteens with white, clear pulp, each kg has 7-10 peeled fruits.

It is known that quality green mangosteen can be kept for 3-5 days, in low temperature conditions. Therefore, buyers are always advised to keep mangosteen in the refrigerator, and take it out when using.

Nowadays, green mangosteen is used to make salad, eaten mainly with chicken. This is a rustic dish of the Southeast provinces. The green mangosteen pulp is mixed with chicken, chili, fish sauce and other vegetables, really "addictive" from the first try.

Ms. Truc Tien (living in District 10, Ho Chi Minh City) shared that because she saw that mangosteen salad was "hot" online, she also wanted to try it. At first, because she found the price of peeled mangosteen too high, she bought the whole type and peeled it herself.

"But after peeling the first fruit, I was already exhausted. Peeling is not easy because it has to be done under running water. After the first try, I had to buy pre-peeled mangosteen for convenience. This dish is really delicious, the mangosteen pieces are sweet and crunchy, very unique, unlike any other salad I have ever eaten," said Ms. Tien.

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