Watermelon re-invented

A fat, round watermelon can take up a lot of room in a refrigerator, and the usually round fruit often sits awkwardly on refrigerator shelves. And then there was the problem of trying to cut the fruit when it kept rolling around.

The farmer, from Zentsuji in Kagawa,Japan, came up with a brilliant solution by making a cube-shaped watermelon which could easily be packed and stored. The square watermelon are the exact dimensions of Japanese refrigerators, allowing full-grown watermelons to fit conveniently and precisely onto refrigerator shelves. Now, don't think that this is a newest invention, it's been around since 2001. To make it happen, farmers grew the melons in glass boxes and the fruit then naturally assumed the same shape. There are other shapes available too, but the cubic is the most popular picked. Today the cuboid watermelons are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan.

But the fruit, on sale in a selection of department stores and upmarket supermarkets, appeals mainly to the wealthy and fashion-conscious of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two major cities. Each melon sells for 10,000 yen, equivalent to about $83. It is almost double, or even triple, that of a normal watermelon. "I can't buy it, it is too expensive,"
said a woman browsing at a department store in the southern city of Takamatsu.

Source : BBC News

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