Hungary's 2023 watermelon season, which has just ended, was mixed for growers around the country but overall described as good. "The season started late, while a mixture of colder weather and rain in some parts of the country dampened demand," says László Sándor, a melon expert from BASF Vegetable Seeds and advisor to producers across Hungary.
"Our watermelon season is finished. There are only really the last fruits on the market from local production. The season was difficult, it was not easy. Last year was easier because it was hot and dry, even when it is hotter than we thought, it is still good for the fruit. This year, we had cold waves and much more rain than last year. Especially in the western half of the country, we call the Transdanubia areas. In the South and West, we have some growers for the local and export markets. One of them experienced 750 mm of rain from the first plantation until the end of August, which is way too much. The yield this year was less than last year. The first half of the season, July, was sufficient for them in terms of prices on the export and local market. The season started 10 days later than last year. Prices were good it was possible to sell well in July."
Although Hungary was spared from the very hot summer the rest of Europe experienced, the weather did still play a big role. "Around the second week of August, after the cold wave, the rainy period started with consumption dropping a lot. We had a nice yield for the late open field watermelons, especially the harvest in East Hungary. In the South, because they started 10 days later, they also finished 10 days later. During that time in August, it was an unhappy period for growers. It seems at that time, it was not possible to sell a lot of watermelons remaining on the field after a windy, cold, and rainy period. We had very nice weather across Europe during the second half of August, leading to high demand. It was possible to sell almost all the fruit, although not for a high price, but it was possible to sell well. The East Hungarian production area closed with a medium year, while the early watermelon growers closed a good year. The weather in September helped to have nice quality at the end of the season," states Sandor.
In Spain, the weather was very extreme, from dry to rain in high quantities, which was not good for them, and again, heat waves. Sandor says the weather that is getting more and more extreme does not help horticulture at all. It affected Spain and Italy a lot, as well as Greece, who also had big floods at the end of their season.
He says the plantings of watermelons in Hungary, which has increased from last season to this year, will be increased by 5-10%. "Because of the market and labor availability, there is a bottleneck for production. There are never enough quality workers available for the vegetable crops in our country. The watermelon plantings cannot increase more than a maximum of 10%. There's another factor, the field crops are less profitable and even not profitable at all. Those multi-crop growers are moving towards vegetable crops a little bit to have a profit for the year. That's why they switched production to watermelons, etc. That's why the watermelon plantations will increase a little bit more. Most growers are now preparing for next year, for the future. They are collecting and gathering plastic and old dripping irrigation as part of the autumn work," concludes Sandor.
For more information:
Laszlo Sandor
BASF Vegetable Seeds
Tel.: +36 30 9356 722
Email: [email protected]
www.nunhems.com
