There's nothing better than eating a piece of watermelon to cool down once the summer heat arrives. It is a juicy, sweet, colorful fruit, and almost 93% of it is water. Thus, it is low in calories and very refreshing.
Its consumption has become so popular that Puerto Rico, which used to import the fruit from the United States, currently produces about three million pounds of watermelon.
New campaign
Caribbean Produce Exchange (CPE), a leading food distributor, is allocating resources to promote and support the harvest of watermelon for the first time so that Puerto Rican consumers know that the country is in full harvest season.
The new promotional campaign highlights the local watermelon harvest and the fruit's benefits under the slogan "Refreshing and Sweet Puerto Rican Watermelon".
"As soon as consumers learn it is a local product, they support it. They know it's the freshest product because they are in the market the day after they are harvested. They also know that their money will stay here, and that they are helping create jobs. There are thousands of families who depend on local agriculture," emphasized Paco Oramas, representative of CPE.
The watermelon and the Puerto Rican agribusinesses, Finca Gonzalez in Guanica; El Huerto y Soler, in Santa Isabel, and Portalatin Villa, in Salinas, are the protagonists of this campaign, which also seeks to highlight the planting and consumption of local watermelon; a product that has experienced tremendous growth.
Similarly, the campaign will educate consumers about the nutritional benefits and product attributes of watermelon: its origin, its freshness, sweetness, its refreshing taste and versatility, as it can be enjoyed in fresh fruit salads, smoothies, juices, and in a great variety of recipes.
In addition, renowned agronomist Douglas Candelario will participate in this initiative.
Seedless watermelon
Douglas Candelario stated that that they were cultivating seedless watermelons.
"Its a variety that has become very popular in Puerto Rico. We used to import it from the United States, but now we are planting here," he said.
He said they had about 50 hectares cultivated with this variety and that each hectare produced about 400 quintals.
"We collect them, wash them, dry them, put our label on them, classify them by size and pack them. CPE is responsible for distributing them. They can last about two weeks unrefrigerated," he added.
The agronomist said the seedless watermelon variety wasn't genetically modified and that is was a sweet fruit that had no seeds, which made it easier to consume, especially for children and the elderly.
"It's a hybrid obtained by crossing two plants that have an incompatible set of chromosomes. Thus it is a very healthy fruit, eating seedless watermelon is as safe as eating the variety that has seeds," he stressed.
This project, which creates 100 direct jobs in its various operational phases, has been certified by the US Department of Agriculture.
This certification allows farmers to offer their products in the US market and sell to multinational chains.
Source: elnuevodia.com