Japanese farmers start shipping watermelon squares, the price is IDR 1.1 million per fruit

Japanese - Square watermelon farmers in a city in western Japan began the process of delivering their iconic agricultural produce on Tuesday, with the total number of fruits to be delivered by mid-July reaching around 400.

Producers and other workers gathered at the collection center in the morning to check the shape of each watermelon before packing it into boxes.

"This year's harvest is going well," said farmer Toshiyuki Yamashita (78), reported by Kyodo News (1/7).

"I hope people will feel that summer has arrived when they see watermelon," he said.

This cube-shaped fruit, which is a specialty of Zentsuji, Kagawa Prefecture, has a slightly sweet taste and is not suitable for eating.

However, its unusual appearance has made it popular as a summer decoration. In fact, the price per fruit is not cheap, reaching around 10,000 yen (Rp1,115,043) per fruit.

To get the shape, the watermelon is shaped into a cube measuring about 18 centimeters by being planted in a transparent square container with a metal frame after reaching a certain size.

A group of local farmers developed this watermelon about 50 years ago in an effort to produce a fruit that would be easier to put in the refrigerator.

Unfortunately, despite being popular and having a high selling price, currently there are only seven farms that grow square watermelons.

Launching Atlas Obscura, Zentusji City in Kagawa Prefecture is the center of Japan's square watermelon industry, and many reports praise a local farmer who developed the idea in the 1980s.

However, in 1978, a Japanese horticulturist and artist named Tomoyuki Ono applied to patent a 'natural fruit printing process'. Ono found that melons placed in a 'transparent mold frame' would grow according to their cover. And he exhibited his work at a gallery exhibition.

When the square watermelons hit the market in 1979, they sold for about 20 U.S. dollars each in Tokyo, compared with 9 U.S. dollars for regular watermelons, according to a United Press International report at the time.

Although Ono's patent claims that 'the taste of the printed fruit is no less than that of a natural fruit', the square watermelon is currently usually more for looking at than eating. This is because the fruit is harvested before it is fully ripe and mostly serves as a decorative gift.