The supply of watermelons on the West Coast is very tight for the 4th of July pull. “The cooler weather during the growth of the crop pushed harvest dates back 7 to 10 days,” says PJ Colin of Five Crowns Marketing. “Compared to last year, supply is down and there was less of an overlap between domestic and Mexico crops.”
Those cooler temperatures along with weather in general have been the biggest challenges for watermelon growers-shippers this season. “It was unseasonably cool in Arizona while the crop was young and this has caused sizing to be off and created a very unpredictable harvest schedule,” says Colin.
Arizona and California
Right now, the watermelon supply in the west is coming from Phoenix, Arizona and Los Banos, California crop will start in the middle of next week. Other growing areas such as Yuma, Arizona will start to drop in production and supplies will start to pick up in Northern California. “The domestic regions are starting roughly five to 10 days later than last year,” says Colin, adding that supply out of Phoenix will likely wrap up late the week of July 10th.
Meanwhile, with summer coming on, demand is very strong and Colin says it’s been one of the most active watermelon markets in years, if not ever. “The current market has been holding between $210-$224 for a few weeks now and that is up quite a bit from last year,” he says.
Looking ahead, Colin says he sees a smooth transition in supplies between regions. “We’re hopeful that the warm temperatures in the western United States keep demand strong coming out of the holiday pull,” he says.
For more information:
Daren Van Dyke
Five Crowns
Tel: +1 (760) 344-1933
dvandyke@fivecrowns.com
www.FiveCrowns.com