"The costs of producing greenhouse watermelon has increased sharply and, with the current yields, stands at € 0.45/kg. This puts producers in a critical situation as the prices that they are being currently paid for their product do not even cover half of the production costs."
The price in origin has fallen by 75% and stands below €0.20/kg. “In this situation, farmers do not receive even half of what it costs them to produce watermelon,” stated Adoracion Blanque, president of ASAJA-Almería.
"The price of watermelon in the supermarkets is much higher than the price paid to our farmers for this product. Not surprisingly, consumers are paying up to two euro per kilogram of watermelon. This great differential reveals, once again, the uncompensated benefit that is distributed throughout the food chain, and that producers, despite being the people who invest the most, are the ones who are paid the least.
"This increase in the value at the destination does not encourage watermelon consumption, especially in the current situation in which consumers have seen the total value of their shopping basket increase by more than 15%, as they also have to endure increases in other necessary goods, such as energy, etc."
According to an initial assessment by ASAJA-Almería, the current production costs of watermelon increased by an average of 25% over the last two campaigns. “The production area of this spring crop also decreased in this campaign and, at the moment, the crops are yielding a normal production for this phase of the crop cycle. However, the abrupt fall in prices that began last week leaves its profitability in the red.”
“We do not understand why there is such a high difference between the price that consumers pay in Spain for this product and the price that the farmers are paid,” stated the president of ASAJA-Almería. "This does not encourage consumption,” she added.
For more information:
ASAJA Almería
https://asajaalmeria.org