During the previous melon campaign in Honduras producers were affected by unfavourable weather conditions.
"The weather conditions affected our performance and reduced our export goals," affirms Keny Giancarlo Molina, Commercial Manager of Agropecuaria Montelibano, producer and marketer of his own melon brand, Mike's Melons.
Melon exports did not reach Agropecuaria Montelibano's goals, which were set at 76,000 tonnes. Only 70,000 tonnes were exported, which was almost 10% less than expected. The variety most affected was the Cantaloupe, which saw a 20% fall in performance.
Although export volumes were lower than expected, the melon season that finished in May benefited from better market conditions in the United States. "However, the balance between volumes, sales and costs was less than ideal, because costs were substantially higher than expected," Molina explained.
For Agropecuaria Montelibano, the main challenge at the beginning of the campaign was facing the conditions of market uncertainty in the United States. Due to a bacterial outbreak associated with melon consumption in Colorado, the final stages of the domestic melon campaign at the US were drastically affected. For that reason, the search for alternative markets became a key part of the campaign to be able to export the fruit that was ready for consumption at the beginning of the season.
Furthermore, at the beginning of the campaign European market conditions were also far from optimal. In any case, the good positioning of Mike's Melons within the UK market was a good advantage to be able to save the season while European conditions progressively improved.
As the season progressed, the US market also improved and prices were good. Keny assures that "in an unprecedented manner, the US market reached price levels which helped offset the losses in productivity."
"In general terms, we are very satisfied with the quality of the product we have shipped. Despite unstable climatological conditions which made the agronomic management of our plantations a harder task, quite frankly, our expectations have been surpassed," affirms the Commercial Manager of Agropecuaria Montelibano.
Additionally, Molina says that everyone feels very satisfied at the firm, because their melons are still differentiated from others produced in Central America because of their longer shelf life. "It fills us with pride to continue breaking paradigms when it comes to melon shelf life. This has given us a great competitive advantage, because we have handled stock accumulation problems and market pressures with greater peace of mind. For example, with the Cantaloupe variety, it has traditionally been considered that, counting the 17 to 19 days of transit time to Europe, the maximum shelf life was of 7 to 10 days after arrival. Nowadays we are breaking these paradigms and have come to handle products stored for up to 30 days. In contrast, we see that products from other places have a very limited shelf life, even lower than 7 to 10 days," Keny Giancarlo says. It is worth noting that, to achieve these results, Agropecuaria Montelibano has made great investments in research and development, implementing innovations in the processes of post-harvest handling.
Unfortunately, at the end of the campaign there was a fall in the quality of melons due to very intense and unexpected rains during the final stages of the season. "Nevertheless, we were able to sell the product to neighbouring markets and less demanding clients," Keny affirms. Agropecuaria Montelibano will begin harvesting melons for the 2012-2013 season in early December and will finish exporting by mid-May next year.
For more information:Keny Giancarlo Molina Toro
Skype: kennygmolina
Tel: (504) 2781-2186, Ext. 231