Dak Nong durian is in season. This is when durian typing workers are busy. With highly skilled workers, each person can earn nearly 2 million VND/day by listening to and smelling durian.($1=24,000 VND)
The percussionist hears the sound of clapping and guesses the age of the fruit
Having worked in the industry for more than 10 years, with just a small knife, knocking on durian fruit, Mr. Tran Van Truong (residing in Binh Phuoc province) can distinguish which fruit is ripe for harvest, which is still young. quality is not good.
According to Mr. Truong, usually with durian, just smell, identify through the spines and peel color to know the fruit is ripe. However, the woodpecker has more skills to distinguish young and old fruit while the fruit is still on the tree.
Before becoming a professional percussionist, with an income of 1.5 million VND/day, Truong had to go through the process of learning experience.
Learning from many predecessors, traveling around the durian growing localities and even having to “pay dearly” for the wrong typing, after a few years, Truong confidently practiced.
“Doing this job is the most important thing is hearing, experience to judge the age of the fruit through sound. Durian collectors often buy the whole garden, the whole tree. Our task is to check. see what fruit it is time to harvest to cut and pick,” Truong shared about his work.
The tool used to practice durian is very simple, just a hard-handled knife with a blade sharp enough to cut the fruit. The worker climbs the durian tree, checking each fruit in turn by tapping the hard shell with the handle of a knife. Each fruit will give a different sound, helping the worker assess the age and quality of the fruit.
“When durian is ripe, the skin often shrinks and the rice part separates from the shell, so knocking will hear a pop, the fruit in hand is lighter. Any fruit when you hear the sound of the deck, it means that it is not ripe. The fruit is old enough. , when picked down to naturally still ripen, the goods are not old enough to use specialized drugs to incubate “, the durian knocker shared his experience.
Although he has been in the profession for a long time, Truong is always careful when entering the garden to knock and pick durian. Not only knocking the fruit, the worker also carefully smells, tastes the rice to see the sweetness, evaluates the quality of durian fruit.
“Those who do this job only knock to decide the harvest, and picking the wrong fruit will lose credibility with traders, even causing traders to suffer heavy losses. Therefore, high wages also require binding responsibility. It is not every job that has mastered the profession, each worker still has to try to learn from experience to type and pick the old, old fruits to ensure the quality of the goods,” Truong said.
Hearing, good eyes and good health
Entering the profession of typing and picking durians for more than 5 years, Mr. Tran Van Duy (resident in Gia Lai) said that this job, the salary is higher than other occupations, but it is also very arduous. The clock strikes 3 am.
According to the 40-year-old durian, this profession pays well, but in return, it must be healthy to climb trees. Along with health, in order to stay with the profession, the worker must be really hard working and observant to be proficient and stick with it for a long time.
Mr. Duy said: “Each durian tree has a different height, but usually every time you harvest it, you have to climb the tree. The durian harvest season falls during the rainy season, so durian knockers are also very cautious when climbing. , must put safety first”.
In Dak Nong province, there are more than 50 large and small durian granaries. Each barn hires 1-2 professional workers to type durian.
The labor cost of typing durian is about 500 VND/kg (for those who buy a lot) and about 1,000 VND/kg (for those who buy less). After cutting durian, durian knockers will collect the fruit, weigh the weight and charge the barn owners.
Ms. Nguyen Thi My Hang, owner of a durian barn in Nghia Duc ward (Gia Nghia city) currently employs 7 people to knock and pick durians in the gardens and select fruits at the barn. As a unit specializing in durian export, the team of workers picking, cutting, and typing durian is very important, contributing to determining product quality.
“Ordinary workers are paid according to the volume of fruit. However, for reputable and skilled workers, especially workers from the western provinces, the labor is paid by day. On average, each durian knocker has a can earn 1.7-2 million VND/day thanks to this job,” said Hanh.
Photo: Internet (Vinlove.net)