PRICES of watermelons and strawberries have plummeted due to lower demand this month, Sin Chew Daily reported.
According to fruit farmers, watermelon prices would usually rise during the fasting month due to demand for buka puasa.
However, orchard owner Chen Ya Fu said there had been a glut as farmers had grown more fruits in anticipation of higher demand.
A survey showed that watermelon, which used to cost RM4 per kilo, dropped to RM3.50 at the start of Ramadan, before falling to just RM2.50 this week.
Watermelon and Ramadan: Nasir Mokhtar preparing watermelon to be sold at Teluk Pulai, Klang priced between RM10 and RM30 per fruit. — KK SHAM/The Star
As for wholesale strawberry prices, fruit farmer Dong Bao said it had dropped by 88%.
“Right now, the wholesale prices for strawberries are about RM6 to RM7 per kilo only. Usual prices are around RM40 to RM50,” said Dong, who is based in Cameron Highlands.
According to her, 90% of her income was from Muslims visiting Cameron Highlands.
Due to the fall in tourist numbers during Ramadan, she said it is common for prices to drop.
> Model Bella Su has married, six years after the death of her model-actor boyfriend Godfrey Gao, the daily also reported.
Su, 29, who had said she needed time to mourn Gao’s death, announced the marriage on Instagram.
“I am married now to someone who is willing to walk every path and face every high and low together with me in this life.
Su’s manager said she met him while on a trip to Shanghai to visit her maternal grandmother.
Fans were keen to know the identity of the husband but Su chose to keep mum.
“Thank you everyone for caring. I’ve received all of your wishes,” she said.
Gao, a Taiwanese-Canadian, was reported to have suffered a cardiac arrest after filming for 17 hours for a variety show that focused on physical tasks in 2019 in the Chinese city of Ningbo.
He was 35.
Gao – whose mother is from Malaysia – was the first Asian male model to appear in a Louis Vuitton ad campaign.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a, it denotes a separate news item.
