“The weather is becoming more extreme and we are not being able to produce as we used to,” explains Carles Peris, general secretary of the Unió de Llauradors i Ramaders, from the Valencian Community. The problem is the same in Murcia and Andalusia, which have historically been the largest suppliers of watermelons in Spain. The consequence for the markets is less watermelon available, and more expensive.
The search for alternatives has led wholesalers to look for national producers, but in other regions that were not the usual ones, Mercabarna specifies for this newspaper. They use as an example to illustrate last week’s data on watermelons with seeds. They came, in order of volume, from Castellón, Ciudad Real, Segovia, Murcia, Almería, Valencia and Alicante. Normally, Murcia would be the second; Ciudad Real and Segovia replace it.
Four hundred thousand kilos in total, to which must be added another four hundred thousand more that came from Morocco; half and half. “If we talk about percentages, they are numbers maintained, also for last season, so no, it cannot be said that imports from Morocco have increased due to the problem of national production,” they point out from the market. Peris, for his part, considers that we will have to wait for the data at the end of the campaign to see if imports increase.
The cultivation of watermelon is done from south to north, Andalusia is the first. There, the drought and the spring rains have been the two factors that have most affected the crops, they explain from Asaja Andalucía. “The drought left a part of the surface unplanted, and of the part that was cultivated, much was greatly affected by these rains,” they specify. The loss of watermelon cultivation, only in Almería, is 2,500 hectares.
In the Valencian Community, the weather was also the factor that most affected production. A drop of 52% that, from the Unió, is attributed to the high temperatures that occurred during the planting season, the intermittent rains in May and June, the hailstorms in June and the widespread drought.
“What influences the most is that it is not making the temperature that it touches when it touches. The blooms are dividing, and in the end, the fruit does not get to be produced. The plant aborts it”, argues Peris. The losses in this region due to these factors are estimated to be 44 million euros for producers of watermelons (27 million) and melons (17 million). And although producers began to be paid better at the beginning of the campaign –60%–, in many cases this increase is still not enough to compensate for the losses and the increase in costs.
It is also added, in this autonomous community, a problem with wildlife. This is how Peris explains it: “The wild boars are entering the melon groves. Mothers go in front, their children behind. They step on and eat melons, the loss is double”. Although its impact is more punctual, this factor is a particularly intense problem in Baix Maestrat and Plana Baixa, both in Castellón.
From the Unió de Llauradors i Ramaders they add that the market is expected to balance, at least a little, next month. “The offer will be better, because the greatest drop in production was in the melon groves that were planted first, which suffered more adverse weather conditions,” he clarifies. However, demand is also expected to remain high, both in Spain and in Europe, due to the heat.
