Supplies of personal watermelons look solid while demand is somewhat light. “Right now there are lots of melons. There’s enough,” says Michael Wilson of the Etobicoke, Ont.-based company. Currently Wilson is importing watermelons from Honduras, Central America.
At the same time, demand is a bit of a lull for melons as it tends to be around this time of year. “Demand is okay. There’s never big demand for melons right now. And during the holidays it was as usual as well,” Wilson says.
Altogether that puts pricing similar to last year’s prices.
Trucking problems
What is hampering the business somewhat is transportation issues, namely around the new electronic logging devices that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules have made mandatory since December.
“So the problem right now is the trucks being able to move product. The new e-log rules have for the past three weeks doubled the rates and increased delivery times by 2-3 days. It’s pretty much a nightmare,” Wilson says. “There’s nothing you can do. It’s not up to the importers to adjust—it’s up to the transportation companies to adjust to this. And I don’t know what action they’re taking but it’s definitely causing some problems.”
And as that issue potentially sorts itself out, Wilson continues to see a bit of a slower time until late winter. “Over the next couple of weeks, business will slow down from now until March. Normally you have higher demand in March and April and you have other areas that are on and more product available. March will be the early Florida crop for watermelons,” he says.
For more information:
Michael Wilson
National Produce Marketing Inc.
Tel: +1 (416)-259-0833
mike@nationalproduce.com
www.nationalproduce.com