SPRING WATERMELON HARVESTING BEGINS

[Anchor Lead]

Although it's still a bit chilly during the mornings and nights in March, watermelons are already being shipped out in Buyeo, Chungcheongnam-do Province, a fruit known as a summer staple. The shipping started about ten days earlier than last year. Advancements in agricultural technology have rendered the concept of 'seasonal fruit'.

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Watermelons ripen amid the green leaves. The farmers are busy locating and harvesting fruits that are ready to be shipped. When cut open, the watermelon reveals its red, juicy flesh and enticing sweet scent. Watermelons being harvested now were sown about three months ago, in early to mid-December. That's about two weeks earlier than other early-planting varieties. Weighing around 6kg each, they are 3kg lighter than the watermelons harvested in summer, but their sweetness level exceed 12 brix, making them more delectable than the regular in-season watermelons.

[Soundbite] Kim Kwan-shik(Watermelon farmer) : "They grow slowly because it’s cold and they ripen later as well. But their texture and sweetness are much better."

Buyeo, the largest producer of watermelons in Korea, holds an 18 percent market share. This year, spring harvesting began ten days earlier than last year. In fact, about 240, or 12 percent of all watermelon farms, cultivated the fruit early this year. Spring watermelons cost twice as much as summer watermelons, and raising them is easier because the spring weather is less prone to climate hazards and evades the monsoon season. A growing number of farmers choose to cultivate early-planting watermelon varieties because new agricultural technologies now help save on heating costs. One of them is the water cooling method.

[Soundbite] Cho In-jun(Buyeo-gun County Office) : "The right facilities and technology for cultivating and managing crops are the most important."

With agricultural technologies advancing fast in line with climate change, the meaning of "in season" when it comes to fruits is also changing.