Recently Alicante, Spain, has started supplying the European market with their watermelons. In the same way, Murcia is also coming into the market. Besides Spanish watermelons, the European market is also receiving Romanian and Greek ones. Due to the great supply within Europe, Latin American watermelons have no room to compete in this continent.
The main watermelon varieties found in Europe are Crimson, Seedless, Fashion and, to a lesser extent, Yellow watermelon. While the Romanian and Greek ones are subject to bulk exporting, the Spanish ones are generally exported in boxes. Spanish watermelons are normally consumed in North Eastern Europe, while North Western Europe prefers Romanian and Greek watermelons.
In Europe, watermelon sales reach their peak in the summer, when countries like Italy, Germany and Spain consume large quantities of this fruit. For the commercialization of the product, the climate is quite an important aspect. When temperatures are high, consumers demand greater amounts of fruit. Taking into consideration that this summer has not been particularly warm and that rains have been frequent, watermelon sales have suffered. With a lower demand due to climatological reasons and with great supply, from Murcia as well as from Almeria, prices are going down. At the moment in Germany the prices are of 0.20 Euro for the Sugar Baby, 0.25 Euro for the Seedless, 0.40 Euro for the Fashion (Seedless black) and 0.22 Euro for the Crimson watermelon (with seeds).
Although prices are not particularly high, they are expected to go up during the next few weeks due to fewer supplies from Spain and an improvement of the weather. Regarding the production of Spanish watermelons, producers in Murcia expect some difficulties to keep it up, due to which the international market's supply will reduce. The climate this summer has also not been very favourable for watermelon sales. It is expected to improve soon, so demand will consequently rise.