Durian "knocking" profession

Durian in the growing areas of the province is entering the harvest season. This is also the time when durian “appraisal” practitioners are busy with work, but their joy is having a high income.

Money making profession

Da Mi (Ham Thuan Bac district) is considered the durian growing capital of the province with an area of over 1,000 hectares of durian in commercial production. At this time, the atmosphere of the harvest season is bustling on all roads. In the gardens, the voices and laughter of fruit cutters and transporters are mixed with the strong aroma of ripe durian. The amount of durian harvested from each garden each day can be up to several tons of fruit, which has helped many workers have a stable income.

Nguyen Xuan Hoa, from Cai Be district, Tien Giang province, has been in Da Mi for over a month now to practice his durian "knocking" profession. Although only 25 years old, Hoa has been in the profession for over 7 years. Hoa is often hired by warehouse owners, traders, and sometimes gardeners to determine whether the fruit is ripe for harvest, or sometimes to classify defects inside the durian fruit, such as thick skin, no flesh, etc. Hoa said: To become a good durian "knocker", the first thing you have to do is learn to be careful and meticulous in every detail. The second thing is to practice the technique of listening to the sound of the durian fruit. Explaining this, Hoa said: “Normally, just smelling the aroma is enough to know that the durian is ripe. But in this profession, you have to know how to assess the ripeness of the fruit before you can smell the aroma. That is, when you tap the knife handle on the fruit and hear “pop pop”, it means the fruit has started to ripen, and when you hear “coong coong”, “boong boong” it means the durian is not ripe yet.”

According to Hoa, besides tapping and listening to the sound, a good durian "knocker" also relies on the color of the thorns and skin of the durian to guess its age. If the thorns and skin of the durian have turned dark, it shows that the fruit is old and ready to be harvested. If, however, they want to be more careful, before receiving the garden, the durian "knockers" need to visit the garden, cut a fruit and check the flesh. If the durian flesh is yellow, has a powdery taste and a sweet taste, it shows that the durian is about 130 days old, old enough to be cut. That durian garden is ready to be harvested.

With good health and many years of experience, Hoa is paid 1 - 1.5 million VND per day by traders to "knock" durian.

Many gardeners said that during harvest time, each garden has nearly ten people to do jobs such as: knocking, picking, collecting, transporting... Depending on the job, there will be appropriate and different prices. However, the job of "knocking" durian will have a higher price than other jobs, which is ranging from 1 - 1.5 million VND/day. The remaining jobs are usually paid from 300,000 - 700,000 VND/day. Although the work is somewhat difficult and tiring, everyone hopes that the garden owner will have a good harvest and good prices, so they will have income.

But dangerous

Despite the high income, the job of “knocking” durian has to face many difficulties and dangers. Mr. Tran Van Hung (Da Tro village, Da Mi commune) is also one of the local durian “knockers” and said: Durian has tall and short trees; harvesting the fruit of short trees will be simpler, but for tall trees, you must be absolutely careful, because if you step on a dry or rotten branch, the risk of accident and injury will be very high.

In addition, durian “knockers” must also be careful in selecting the fruit, if they accidentally determine the wrong age of the fruit, it will cause great economic losses. And then, the knocker will be forced to compensate the trader, and even have to buy back all the young durians that were mistakenly cut.

“To ensure our own safety, as well as economic security, we must always be careful, uphold responsibility in our work, and constantly learn from experience to accurately pick ripe, age-appropriate fruits, ensuring product quality,” said Mr. Hung.

Compared to other durian growing areas in the province, durian in Da Mi commune is often harvested more than a month later than in the Western and Southeastern provinces. This is due to the soil and climate conditions that are influenced by the cool, temperate highlands. Currently, traders are flocking to Da Mi to buy durian, which gives local workers more income.

In Binh Thuan, there are currently 3 typical areas that can grow durian with high quality and fruit for export: Ham Thuan Bac, Tanh Linh, Duc Linh. The whole province is estimated to have about 2,500 hectares of durian, of which nearly 2,000 hectares are in harvest time with a yield of 10 - 16 tons/ha.

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