As the days go by, Almeria's watermelon supply continues to increase. However, the demand for this fruit in central and northern Europe has slowed down due to bad weather, causing prices to decrease.
“We started harvesting the first seedless watermelons three ago, but the harvest really kicked in strongly this week, with the output of more than 2 million kilos. From now on we'll have consistent volumes,” stated Jose Antonio Baños, president of the Ejidomar cooperative.
Ejidomar, which is based in El Ejido, has allocated the same cultivation area for watermelon as in the previous year. However, in the first weeks of this campaign, they obtained twice the volume than in the same weeks of last year, when there was a significant decrease in the harvest because the haze and abundant rains in March and part of April led to fruit setting issues.
Spanish watermelon has not encountered much competition from imports, but the demand for exports in central and northern Europe has fallen due to bad weather.
“Senegal's production has been declining for a few years and by now it is practically out of the market. Now we tend to compete with Moroccan watermelon in national wholesale markets, thanks to its good caliber. However, it seems they don't have large volumes this year because of a decrease in the cultivated area due to the drought that is affecting the country,” Jose Antonio Baños stated.
“There is stagnant demand for small calibers abroad due to the influence that low temperatures and rainfall have had on consumption in northern Europe. Meanwhile, demand in the national market, which usually asks for larger calibers, has been very good because of the summer weather in recent weeks,” stated the president of Ejidomar.
As a result of the low exports and the growing supply, prices have dropped significantly compared to last week, when they were high. However, if they stop falling and remain at the current level, they'll continue to be acceptable prices,” he stated.
Lack of rainfall is becoming an increasingly worrying problem for Almeria's farmers. “At the moment we have enough water to continue growing our crops. However, many wells are becoming more salinized than usual, which could be harmful to some crops, such as pepper,” Jose Antonio Baños warned.
Ejidomar will link Almeria's watermelon campaign with that of Seville, Murcia, and Castilla-La Mancha.
For more information:
José Antonio Baños
EJIDOMAR
El Ejido, Almería
T: +34 950483511
[email protected]
www.ejidomar.es