July 5 Da Nei Mango Festival: Meeting the contented elderly farmers of a remote rural area
July 5, 2020 Da Nei Mango Festival
The fruit quality is outstanding, but the area's fame is still somewhat lacking. Once, Da Nei was a major hub and base for fruit. As the population moved away, the number of newcomers gradually declined. Yet young farmers have returned home to take up the baton, quietly working hard and studying their craft, growing large quantities of top-grade mangoes for export to Japan, "top-grade mangoes that even Japanese people, who are particular about high-quality fruit, praise without end." It feels as though we are seeing another possibility. Beyond the golden "mangoes," the "happiness fruit - avocado," which has risen in prominence in Da Nei in recent years, is also one of the stars.
High-quality mangoes
Da Nei Mango Festival - piles of fruit casually displayed for sale: mangoes / avocados / durians / pineapples
Visiting the "Da Nei Mango Festival market," both sides of one of the aisles were lined with all kinds of fruit, mainly mangoes. Most of the people selling fruit here were elderly farmers, and most of them looked to be people already over 50 years old. It is hard to imagine that in the barren chalky soil area of Da Nei, which the "Pingpu people and Han Chinese" reclaimed together, mangoes with such layered flavors could be grown.
Da Nei Mango Festival - elderly farmers selling mangoes at fruit stalls
When I walked past this full basket of "guavas," the well-known contented elderly farmer was selling them at a very surprising price. Come here and you are guaranteed to go home satisfied. Although the scale of the market is not large, the fruit quality is not compromised in the slightest.
