Betel nut is sought after thanks to the ‘mukbang trend’

It took three days to find a buyer for Ms. Loan (Xuan Hoa ward, Ho Chi Minh City) to get a betel fruit weighing about 700 grams for 380,000 VND. Before that, the three stores she contacted all said they were out of stock.

“I watched many videos of people eating something strange, so I wanted to try it. The store said that garden houses in Da Lat were in short supply and had to wait to get it,” she said.

Not only Ms. Loan, in recent days, on fruit groups and social networks, there have been many posts looking to buy this fruit. Many people are willing to spend more than half a million VND to buy two fruits just to enjoy or record a video of the experience.

The mukbang videos recording the peeling of each layer of green scales, revealing the ivory white flesh and then describing the flavor as a combination of banana, pineapple, custard apple… have attracted a large number of viewers, turning the little-known fruit into a curious dish.

The fever quickly spread to the market. Many fruit stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Lam Dong, Dak Lak… that only sell common fruits have also started to source betel nuts for sale. According to the seller, the amount of fruit arrives everywhere because the supply from gardeners is very limited.

Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Chau, owner of a fruit store in Ho Chi Minh City, said that betel nuts have only been asked to buy a lot by customers for the past two months, after continuously appearing in mukbang videos on digital platforms.

“People like strange things so they buy them. Most customers buy them to try them out of curiosity, including many content creators on digital platforms and even foreign customers who already know this fruit,” she said.

According to Ms. Chau, the store imported about 50 fruits from a gardener in Da Lat to sell but quickly ran out of stock after just a short time. Currently, each fruit costs 250,000-350,000 VND depending on size, equivalent to more than half a million VND per kilogram.

However, the fever also brought many mixed responses. Under mukbang videos and posts sharing experiences, many people said that after eating, their lips, tongue or throat itched. Others commented that the flavor is quite strange but not too special compared to the price of several hundred thousand dong per fruit.

Ms. Chau said that most cases of itching come from eating fruit when it is not fully ripe. Betel nut can only be eaten when it is naturally ripe and the eyes on the shell peel off on their own. If eaten too early, calcium oxalate crystals remaining in the fruit can cause stinging, itching or burning in the mouth and throat. On the contrary, ripe fruit has sweet, fragrant flesh, which many people compare to a combination of banana, pineapple, custard-apple and jujube, creating a different flavor compared to common fruits.

Upstream, Ms. Thanh Nga, a gardener in Da Lat (Lam Dong), said her family has been growing betel for more than 20 years but mainly as an ornamental plant and has never thought about selling the fruit.

“In the past, ripe fruits were mainly left to fall or for acquaintances to eat. The family never thought that one day they would sell them for several hundred thousand dong each,” she said.

Only since the image of betel nuts spread on digital platforms and many people kept calling to ask to buy them did her family begin to harvest them for sale.

In the first crop this year, her garden only harvested about 40 fruits and they were sold out in a short time. Each fruit weighs about 500-600 grams, sold at the garden for about 220,000 VND.

According to Ms. Nga, the family has no plans to expand the area because this is a very slow growing tree. From planting to fruit bearing, it takes about 6 years, and each batch of fruit takes another year to one and a half years to mature and ripen naturally.

“This is still an ornamental tree, the fruit is just a derivative product, not a fruit tree grown for business. Wanting to increase production cannot be done overnight,” she said.

Betel nut (Monstera deliciosa) originates from tropical rain forests, naturally distributed from southern Mexico to Panama. At the place of origin, ripe fruits have long been used as fresh fruit or processed into ice cream and drinks thanks to a flavor that many people compare to a combination of banana, pineapple and many tropical fruits.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, for many years betel nut has been mainly grown as an ornamental plant thanks to its characteristic large leaves. Although the tree still produces fruit, few people know that this fruit can be eaten when fully ripe, so most of it is left to fall or only for acquaintances to enjoy.