Sweet Fruit This Year

“This year’s fruits taste very good!”

With Chuseok, Korea’s Thanksgiving, just ahead, many people are saying this after tasting this year’s fruit harvest, which is available on the market.

These people’s appraisals were proven to be true because the results of tests of the sweetness of fruit, which influences taste, came out with high marks for superior quality.

According to the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, an umbrella organization within the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on September 21, the sweetness of this year’s Jangshipryang pear and Hongro apple turned out to be 11.5 percent and 14.7 percent, respectively, upon examination.

If the sweetness is above 11 percent for Jangshipryang, and above 12 percent for Hongro, the fruit is categorized as superior quality.

The sweetness of the Shingo pear and the Fuji apple, which are customer favorites, are expected to reach a new three-year high since 2002.

The sweetness of the Shingo pear and the Fuji apple dropped to 11.2 percent and 12.9 percent last year due to heavy precipitation from the sweetness levels of 2002, which were 11.4 percent and 12.9 percent. The sweetness levels only reached high grade, a level slightly inferior to superior quality, for two years in a row.

However, the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service is foreseeing that due to the good weather conditions compared to other years, these two grades will reach above 12 percent and 14 percent, which are the criteria for being categorized as superior quality.

But the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service also explained that some fruits that are injected with growth hormones and harvested early for vital occasions like Chuseok may appear bigger in size but have lower sweetness than that of regular fruits.

Ji-Wan Cha cha@donga.com