According to the statistics from Agricultural Department in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Xinjiang covers a watermelon plantation area of 6,333 hectares in 2015, and its cultivation area decreased a bit in 2016 compared with 2015. Due to the flood disaster in June and July, the market listing time of Xinjiang watermelon was postponed for 10 to 15 days, and they didn't come to the market until the beginning of August. As the majority of early ripe Xinjiang watermelons are sold to other regions in China, its price in Xinjiang region increases significantly due to less supply volume.
However, as more and more watermelons from Hebei, Shandong and Henan provinces swarmed the market from the end of July, less watermelon wholesalers showed up in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. By August, more watermelons from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Ningxia, Gansu provinces and Northeast regions come to the market, which deteriorates the wholesale situation in Xinjiang even more.
Another important reason for the extreme low watermelon price in Xinjiang is that their listing season coincides with the listing season of watermelons from other regions. Consequently, a large volume of Xinjiang watermelons turn out to be slow moving stock.
Source: Tianshan News