2023-05-23 09:50:22
Tuesday, May 23, 2023, 00:13
Melon and watermelon are two summer classics that will be in short supply again this year on many tables because, as the sector warns, the lack of supply that in 2022 raised its price above ten euros will be repeated. Its producers estimate that it will again be difficult to meet demand and that production will be 20% below that of other years.
The causes, as already happened in the last season, are the production costs increased by inflation and the weather conditions, which delay the harvest of fruits and vegetables that producers alternate with melons and watermelons. In addition to this, we must add that in many cases, the high prices reached by these products (such as tomatoes or cucumbers) have led farmers to maintain their production in greenhouses at the expense of the melon and watermelon campaign.
The latest available data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food show that 17,915 hectares of melon were cultivated last year compared to 19,000 in 2021 and 22,178 of watermelon compared to 23,202 in the previous campaign. Most of the production is concentrated in Almería, Murcia, Seville and Valencia.
10% more costs
“Producers are stopping planting due to the lack of water availability and this leads to a very bad start to the campaign,” warn the Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations, which, despite not ruling out that prices will shoot again, it also underlines a positive fact: the performance “is being better than last year”, above all, because during 2022 there were “many problems derived from pests and haze”.
Finally, farmers are also concerned about the increase in production costs, which are around 10%, and which are added to the 30% registered in the previous year. While prices such as energy or labor, although they have not risen again, continue to be very high.
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