The price of melons and watermelons from Castile-La Mancha continues its rising trend. The Horticultural Fruit Market for Melons and Watermelons of Castile-La Mancha stated that the price of melons has increased by 10 cents in the last week, while that of watermelons has gone up by 5 cents.
The president of the Melon and Watermelon Interprofessional of Castile-La Mancha, Cristóbal Jiménez, has pointed out that "the price of extra quality melons oscillates on average between 0.31 and 0.36 Euro, while first class melons cost between 0.23 and 0.28 Euro. The cheapest is the second class, with a price that does not exceed 0.20 Euro.
The forecast is that the price increase will take place gradually, as the production from Castile-La Mancha is left alone in the markets, and given the reduction of the acreage in 2017. Jiménez pointed out that "despite the large retailers' attempts to shape the prices, which they succeed in doing most of the time, they're going to have a hard time now, since after 10 August there has been no other melon in the market other than that from Castile-La Mancha."
With the bulk of the production located in the surroundings of Manzanares, Membrilla, Tomelloso, Argamasilla de Alba, Llanos, Cinco Casas and Villarta de San Juan, this year growers have planted 1.660 hectares less of melon and 590 less of watermelon. In total, the interprofessional estimates that there are 6,200 hectares of melon and 2,600 of watermelon planted in Castile-La Mancha.
Watermelon prices are still very low
In any case, watermelons are still very cheap, with prices for the first class seedless fruit of between 0.13 and 0.15 Euro, and of 0.8 to 0.10 Euro for the second class. The average prices of first class and second class white watermelons stand at about the same levels.
However, Cristóbal Jiménez has pointed out that the interprofessional hopes "for a similar recovery to that we have seen with melons." About 40 percent of Castile-La Mancha's watermelons end up in Europe, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark or Germany, and after weeks of adverse weather conditions, good weather has finally arrived, giving a boost to fresh fruit consumption.
Source: lanzadigital.com
