"Crooked melon cracked jujube" fruit counterattacks the market

In the past, the fruits sold in fruit stores or supermarkets were beautiful and regular in shape. But in the past two years, the author found that the fruit in the shape of "crooked melon and split jujube" began to counterattack. First, there were ugly oranges that were born last year, and then there were ugly apples that swept the market this year, rough appearance, and not low prices. But it attracted a lot of citizens.

The price of ugly fruit is not cheap. The citrus "ugly monster" with crumpled body and dim skin has become popular from last year to this year. In the eyes of Miss Zhang, a citizen of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, although "ugly" is ugly, she is "beautiful at heart." "the taste of eating is completely different from what it looks like. It is sour and sweet, delicious and hydrated, and you still want to eat it."

The employees of several fruit stores selling "ugly" told me that this kind of fruit has sold very well since the beginning of winter, and there are many repeat customers. But despite the fact that this "ugly" looks like fruit that has not been sold for many days, the price is not cheap, at 10-12 yuan per kilogram.

In addition to ugly oranges, ugly apples are also selling well recently. Recently, the author came to a fruit store and saw the "ugly" apple at a glance among all kinds of apples. Compared with other apples, its appearance is not very uniform, dark red on one side, cyan on the other, cyan spots scattered on the skin, small, irregular shape, but can obviously smell the fragrance of the apple.

According to the shop assistant, this kind of ugly apple is actually a wild apple from the mountain area. it grows in a place with high altitude and plenty of sunshine, which is original and pollution-free. "Wild apples go on sale in October this year. The price of a 5-kilogram package is between 70 yuan and 80 yuan." It is precisely with this "original" banner, ugly apple easily captured a large number of consumers, even if it is much more expensive than ordinary apples, but some fruit stores can still sell dozens of cases every day.

Industry insiders: "original ecology" is just a marketing gimmick, ugly for different reasons.

For the counterattack of "crooked melon and split jujube", fruit sellers have their own views. "in recent years, more and more customers are paying attention to food safety issues, fearing to buy 'beauty fruits' such as waxed apples, ripening strawberries and swelling agent watermelons." Mr. Ruan, the head of a fruit store, said that because of this mentality, customers will think that the fruit looks like this is the natural appearance, coupled with a good taste, ugly fruit has to be spoiled.

In his view, wild, original ecological views are marketing gimmicks. "take wild apples as an example, if they are really wild, it is absolutely impossible for the output to meet the market demand." He told me that wild apples do not grow entirely in a natural environment, but should only provide a geographical environment suitable for apple growth, without artificial intervention, similar to the wild. The wild apples on the market are mainly produced in alpine environments such as Sichuan and Yunnan, with sufficient sunshine, large temperature difference between day and night, and high sugar content, so they will taste better than ordinary apples, but the price of reducing human intervention is poor appearance.