June was favourable to melons. Laurent Poisson, winegrower and melon producer is delighted, ''harvest started Thursday last week. It is promising. June was favourable, but now it all depends on the weather. We cannot predict anything. The season is beginning. Now we will plant every 15 days and the harvest will only end in September''.
Laurent Poisson is a small producer next to the sector's giants, Soldive and Rouge-Gorge. He markets under the brand Délice de Thouet. The 300-350 tons of melons that he produces annually over his 20 ha are PGI certified. Both his clients that he sells to directly and the wholesalers ''are looking for quality''.
For consumers that buy directly from the farm they economise 50%, 48 hours ago they were hardly over €1 each.
The producer hires on average 12 seasonal workers per year, ''we take on locals as a priority, people who live as near as possible to the sector and can be free all season''. He continues that ''it is a very physical job. The melons are heavy. One must not have a bad back. Young people are normally fit but it isn't always the case for older people.''