“2024 is not a watermelon year!”

Since the beginning of May, Spanish watermelons have joined the supply from Morocco, already present since February/March on French supermarket shelves. These campaigns are hampered by a lack of consumption. "The bad weather has not really allowed us to have a good campaign. Watermelons are particularly climate-dependent, so sales dynamics have been rather slow in the first quarter. The economic context is also weighing heavily on purchasing power. Sales began to slow down sharply in the third week of the month. And finally, urban legend or not, election years are often said to be bad years for fruit and vegetables," explains Michel Martinez of Saint-Charles Primeurs.

The current situation has nothing to do with product quality. "As far as we are concerned, we have been rather satisfied with the quality of watermelons from our suppliers, both from Morocco and Spain. The campaign is really impacted by the lack of consumption, to which was added an excessively abundant supply due to origins that telescoped and arrived with high volumes, such as Greece and Italy. But with temperatures 3 to 4°C below seasonal averages, we can say that this year really is not a watermelon year."

The Moroccan campaign is likely to finish in late July/early August, but the Spanish can still make up for lost time in the summer. For this, however, the good weather will have to last.