A floating fruit market selling more than 150 kinds of fruit with prices 20-40 percent cheaper than that of the market constitutes one of the highlights of the annual Southern Fruit Festival that opened in Ho Chi Minh City on June 1.

The festival will run until late August at the Suoi Tien Tourist Area in District 9 with a wide range of activities such as a fruit parade, a collection of rare and giant fruits, and a fruit cooking contest.

Free tickets are available for children and their parents on June 1 – the Children’s Day, while children visiting in groups will have tickets of 50 percent discount.

Music performances staged by domestic and foreign art troupes from India , the Republic of Korea , Malaysia , Indonesia , Thailand , Cambodia , and Laos and folk games are expected to surprise the festive-goers.

Started in 2004, the annual festival has become a popular cultural tourism event, honoring the agricultural values of Vietnam and the southern region in particular.

The southern region boasts 415,800 ha of land for fruit cultivation, producing around 4.3 million tonnes per year, accounting for 53.2 percent and 57 percent of the country’s area and output, respectively.-VNA