According to The Times of 1 October 2021 there is rivalry between Italy and Belgium to try and achieve the world record for the biggest [heaviest] pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima).  Stefano Cutrupi, a Tuscan farmer, produced a fruit weighing 1,226kg, thus winning Italy’s La Zuccone championship the previous weekend.  However, Mario Vangeel, from Kasterlee, Belgium, where  a ‘famous pumpkin festival’ is held every year, hopes his pumpkin will exceed Cutrupi’s in weight, when entered at the world championship, in Germany, on 10 October.  Vangeel’s pumpkin weighs 1,020kg, and he is confident that it will put on extra weight before the championship.

Cutrupi took the record from Belgian Matthias Willemigins, who set it at 1,190kg in 2016. He has also won the world title for the last four years.

The winner at world championship to be held in Ludwihsburg will win ∉12,000. Vangell said, ‘When the championship is over, we will hollow out the pumpkin.  The seed we will keep to sell because that will be worth something’.