While the Mauritanian watermelon season went fairly well, the situation is more delicate for the Moroccan produce. "The Mauritanian season began just before April and is now coming to an end. We had good volumes, and the season went fairly well. We are currently transitioning to Moroccan produce, but we have been encountering some difficulties. The fields were hit by hailstorms in May, followed by a heatwave, which affected production in terms of quantity and size. As a result, the fruit we are harvesting is small, weighing between 8 and 10 kilos, and we are struggling to fulfil all our orders due to a lack of produce," explains David Giro, sales manager for exports and the French market.
Limited supply in the face of sustained demand
Supply is therefore limited and insufficient to meet the rather sustained demand. "The very nice and sunny days we have had recently have been favorable for watermelon consumption. However, there are not a lot of watermelons available on the shelves at the moment despite the sustained demand. We are also at the beginning of the stone fruit season, and the first fruits are still being sold at relatively high prices."
Egypt: A growing market
Faced with this shortage of produce, which inevitably leads to relatively high prices for the season, Dalia Group is looking to work with new sources. "In addition to the difficulties caused by climatic events, legislation is preventing us from expanding in Morocco. With the drought affecting the country, the king has introduced a law limiting the number of hectares of watermelons, which is a very water-intensive crop, to 2 hectares per producer. In order to continue to serve our clients, we have to look to other sources to supplement our current volumes. We are therefore currently interested in Egypt, a market that is developing. Production still needs to improve, but the quality is much better than it used to be, and the fruit is looking more and more like the Moroccan variety. Algeria is also a source worth exploring. I recently had the opportunity to see watermelons from there, which seemed to be of fairly good quality."
For more information:
David Giro
Dalia Group
Phone: +337 636 416 30
Phone: +212 766 497283
[email protected]