Julpo Haepung Watermelon [2010] This photo shows a villager holding a Julpo Haepung Watermelon, Buan’s special product, produced from Julpo-myeon.
Julpo Haepung Watermelon [2010This photo shows a farmer loading Julpo Haepung Watermelons (Buan’s special product) into a vehicle.
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LocationBuan-gun, Jeollabuk-do
- CategoryFolk Food ∙ Local Specialties
- Korean줄포 해풍 수박
- Chinese茁浦海風-
- Nickname줄포 수박|줄포 황토 수박
- FieldPolitics, Economy and Society / Economy & Industry
- Contents TypeSpecialty
- Production siteJulpo-myeon, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do
- Definition
- The watermelon produced in Julpo-myeon, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do
- Summary
- Julpo Haepung Watermelon is the watermelon grown with the gentle sea breeze on the West Coast of the Korean Peninsula. This excellent specialty fruit from Buan County is very sweet, with an average brix of 13 with less seeds but more delicious texture.
- Origins and Development
- Buan County of Jeollabuk-doboasts being the top producer of Korean watermelons as its 13 townships specialize in watermelon production. Among them, Julpo-myeon produces 70 percent of the county’s watermelons. The brand “Julpo Haepung Watermelon” started in 1991 from red clay fields in Julpo-myeon. The soil rich in minerals has produced watermelons high in nutritional value and great in texture, and the fruit’s excellent quality was certified by the county. The watermelon grown in Julpo-myeon became the first-ever watermelon to be exported to Japan. The Julpo watermelon is systematically cultivated as the seeds are sown in the field measuring 185 ha in area in April, and the fruits are harvested in early-to mid-July. Only fruits measuring higher than a brix 12 only are chosen to boast the “Julpo Red Clay Watermelon” brand, which generates about KRW 7 billion in revenue annually. The Buan County Agricultural Technology Center aims to mitigate the fruit’s physiological limits and improve its quality through demonstration projects designed to produce top-quality watermelons.
- Production Method and Characteristics
- The Julpo Haepung Watermelon is the tropical fruit produced during the summer season only and takes about 90 days from sowing the seeds to harvesting the fruits. When the fruit ripens, the fruit’s part that touches the ground turns from white to yellow, and the farmers know it is time to harvest the fruit when its tendril withers. The Julpo Haepung Watermelon contains 90% water. The fruit’s sweetness tends to be greater when it’s grown in an area with high daily temperature variations or high daytime temperatures. Rich in potassium, the fruit can help discharge the sodium content in the body and improve blood circulation. The fruit is also rich in lycopene, which is known to have anti-aging effects. Arginine found in watermelon helps enrich the liver, so the fruit is good for hangovers. The rind contains citrulline, which is known to help with kidney function and reduce water retention.
- Current Status including Relevant Industry
- In 2020, 20 evaluators from the county’s watermelon farms organized a field evaluation with the purpose to improve the Julpo Haepung Watermelon. They conducted a comparative evaluation on the quality of two different fruit types, some grown with the existing cultivation method using newspaper covers and others grown with the demonstration project using felt covers. The weight, appearance, color, and sweetness of each set were measured for analysis. The results confirmed that watermelon grown under felt covers were far better in overall quality. The watermelon farmers in Julpo have made efforts to find ways to reduce damage to the fruit caused by strong sunlight and improve the quality to be a commercially successful product. The farmers also adopted a corrective action system to recall products in case of defects, taking full responsibility for quality and consumer protection.