As the winter weather has been mild in Greece, the watermelon season started a few days earlier, says Nick Nafpliotis, company director of fresh produce exporter Greek & Fresh: "The Greek watermelon campaign has started in week 18, which was about ten to twelve days earlier than usual, due to the rather mild winter period. As per usual, we have started with tunnel production, for the Bostana variety, which will go until week 21. From there onward, we will start progressively with the open-field production of watermelons."
There will be more watermelons available this season compared to the previous season. However, as last year was a low year in terms of production, Nafpliotis states this is more like a normal year. "Looking at the production of Greek watermelons, quantities are about 20 to 30 percent higher than they were last year. However, last year we had a drop in the production, so at the end you can say that we now have the quantities of a 'normal' year. The size of the watermelons seems to be a bit larger than usual for this period, hence the current limitation to supply smaller watermelons (3-6kg) in cartons."
The weather heavily influences the demand for watermelons, and the past weeks it has been colder. Nafpliotis does feel the demand will increase in the coming weeks: "The demand for watermelons has been relatively quiet in week 18 and week 19, due to the cold weather all over Europe. That being said, we already see an improvement as the weather is getting warmer on the continent. The consumption of watermelons is always influenced by the weather conditions, so this is nothing new. Market prices are typical for the period, which I consider a good sign, because historically prices see a more gradual reduction over the following three to four weeks."
"Overall, I believe that we will have a good watermelon campaign and Greece will restore its export volumes compared to last year," Nafpliotis concludes.
For more information:
Nick Nafpliotis
Greek and Fresh
Tel.: +30 215 215 8063
Email: [email protected]
www.greekandfresh.com