According to recent research, Australian melon eaters enjoy just half of the time they taste the fruit. Delytics managing director Mark Loeffen: "At the moment, the acceptability of melons at retail is about 50 per cent. That means that anytime you go and buy a melon, it's a coin toss whether you're going to like it or not."
Delytics is a crop-quality specialist group working alongside Hort Innovation, Melons Australia, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and Rudge Produce Systems to address this situation. To do so, they've initiated a quality-improvement program over 18 months with hopes it will boost consumers' positive-eating experiences.
If successful, Melons Australia executive officer Johnathon Davey said the new standards would boost demand for watermelon, honeydew and rockmelon, providing benefits for consumers and producers.
Source: abc.net.au