Watermelon sales so far this season have been totally atypical due to several factors. The low temperatures in Europe have caused the demand for this purely summer fruit to drop.
In Spain, sales have also not been stable throughout the summer, and changes in consumer tastes, with a growing preference for seedless watermelons, have also taken a toll. However, there is a third factor which many producers had not foreseen, and that is that "Morocco has slightly changed its cultivation methods and has now staggered the planting and harvesting to try having more production available for longer." This has irreparably affected sales, since there has been much more fruit in the market.
The campaign in the Seville area has already come to an end, as it has in Portugal, another producer country with high consumption levels. "And now they've started demanding seeded watermelons, which are the ones they mainly consume." The region of Castile-La Mancha will be the one meeting the Portuguese demand until the end of the campaign. At the end of August, "I have bought watermelons for between 0.17 and 0.20 Euro per kilo," states Giraldo.
For more information:
Juan Giraldo
Al-Andalus Fructus
Tel. +34 656 36 58 54