It’s the same as usual—that’s how the current state of transition for watermelons is being described. “Mexico is going to close down on watermelons. They’ve had very good quality this year and the supply was comparable to last year. Mexico doesn’t ever fully shut down on supplies but it’ll start to get very hot there so it’ll be limited,” says Michael Wilson of National Produce. As this is happening, supply is swinging back north again into some domestic supplies. “Texas is going to start up and Florida is going to start up with its first picks,” adds Wilson.
Notably, the supplies are also back into larger-sized watermelons and out of the personal-sized melons that can be seen over the winter season. “For watermelons, it should be big volume out of Florida and Texas but for the growers, I hope it isn’t,” says Wilson. “They won’t get a lot of money for big volume.”
Demand waits
As for demand for watermelons, that is still waiting on one factor to fall into place that truly boosts demand for the fruit: the weather.
“There’s no demand up here for watermelons because it hasn’t been hot enough yet. It’s tied to the weather,” says Wilson. “As soon as it gets to 75-80 degrees Farenheit, people will be scrambling for watermelon. So by the middle of this week, people will look for it and when it cools off again, they won’t want them anymore.”
Michael Wilson
National Produce Marketing Inc.
Tel: +1 (416)-259-0833
mike@nationalproduce.com
www.nationalproduce.com