For the coming watermelon campaign, Anecoop estimates it will have a volume totalling between 120,000 and 130,000 tonnes, of which about 75% corresponds to the seedless watermelon Bouquet; a product that celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this year. The remaining 25% will consist of black watermelons with seeds and watermelons with micro seeds.
Anecoop works with a wide range of watermelon varieties, with the seedless Bouquet in a prominent position. The production schedule of seedless watermelons, 100% of which are grown in Spain, covers a good part of the Mediterranean arc. It begins in April in Almeria and then moves to Murcia, Alicante, Valencia and Castellon. The productions of Seville and Castile-La Mancha complete the campaign. This production schedule, as explained by Anecoop, "is one of the aspects defining the Bouquet concept, besides the availability, regularity and homogeneity of the product's quality parameters, making Anecoop watermelons a very attractive fruit for retailers."
Constant innovation is one of Anecoop's key strategies. In its two test fields in Almeria and Valencia, featuring both greenhouses and open ground crops, the company reviews its production processes, looking for ways to improve, as well as for new, more efficient forms of cultivation, with a greater productive yield and smaller costs. Furthermore, it tests the new varieties that hit the market each season, from which it selects those that meet the taste, size and quality standards that consumers want, and which can also be profitable for the producer, while offering a good logistic performance.
The work done in this area "is crucial," stated sources from Anecoop. In fact, 25 years ago, the seedless watermelons marketed by Anecoop were of a single variety: the Queen of Hearts.
Currently, the Bouquet watermelon program consists of a set of varieties within each of the four types of watermelon that make up the seedless range: red, yellow, mini and black. "These varieties, of course, meet the parameters required to be marketed under Anecoop's flagship brand, Bouquet," they pointed out.
At present, Bouquet seedless watermelons account for 20% of the watermelons produced in Spain, as well as of the Spanish exports of this product.
This makes Anecoop the main European seedless watermelon operator and a leader in the main consumer markets.
Source: ideal.es
