Warm weather is an ideal situation for the melon trade, or so you would think. "The demand is good, but we expected buyers to queue up at our door on Monday. At other times it can be a fight to get trade in with weather like this, but now we have no complaints about the supply. The demand is good, but we had expected more," says Lisan van Koppen of 4 Fruit, the exclusive supplier of Anecoop melons under the Bouquet brand.
"The Spanish season started very varied in Almeria. Traditionally the prices, due to the higher cultivation costs, are higher than in Murcia, but people were speaking of real Murcia prices. On the other hand the last two weeks of the Almeria season were very good in price. Although considerably less Galia and Cantaloupe melons were planted in Almeria, there has hardly been stress on the market," says Lisan. "Now there are only yellow melons from Almeria available and you can see this price drop the most. The seasons of the other types haven't been in each other's way."
"Murcia will arrive on the market with real numbers next week. Despite the good weather there are reasonable volumes for sale on the market, although the good sizes sell first of course," says the importer. "The price of watermelon is around 50-60 cents per kilo and the mini watermelons are even sold for 10-13 Euro per box. The sales price of Cantaloupe melons is around 5-6 Euro, like the Galia melons, although the small sizes of these are a lot cheaper. The advantage is that there are no old stores on the market. With the exception of yellow melons the available supply consists completely of fresh trade from Murcia."
Towards the summer months it is expected that the supply of the seedless mini watermelons in particular could be problematic. "This doesn't just go for Anecoop, but also for a lot of Spanish producers who have the problem that many mini watermelons just didn't come up. There are only problems with the seedless mini watermelons, the micro semilla (premium mini) and other mini watermelons are likely to be fine. We have the variety Precious Petit. At the moment we are still receiving a reasonably volume, but later in the season real shortages are expected. Many suppliers have informed their customers of this and avoid anything set in stone, let alone planning offers," says Lisan.
"The melons from Murcia are the tastiest Spain has to offer and are also of good quality. From day one for the Bouquet melons. Piel de Sapo melons also have an excellent flavour," says Lisan. "The expectation is that the prices will go down a little over the coming time. The end of Ramadan is in sight and the school holidays are coming up. But of course we are hoping for a repeat of last year, when we had such good weather at the end of the summer that the melons from Murcia couldn't arrive soon enough!"
For more information:
Lisan van Koppen
4 Fruit Company
Handelsweg 30
2988 DB Ridderkerk
Tel. 0031 (0) 180 641908
lisan@4fruitcompany.nl
www.4fruitcompany.nl