October 31 2006, 09:59

The season of water-melon sales is over

Past week the vendors sold the last shipments of water-melons. The supply is practically absent today on market, according to information provided by the specialists of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal. Despite of the top record harvest of water-melons, the season was not quite successful for the producers. Water-melons were sold for $0.02-0.03/kg on terms of customer's pick-up in the peak season; past year the producers set sales prices not less than $0.07-0.09/kg. Relatively low prices dissatisfied the producers; their profits have obviously decreased despite of the increased sales volumes. At the same time, to the specialists' opinion, the price was higher than the production cost, so the water-melon growers had practically no losses.

The data of the Agricultural Marketing Project show that almost 400,000 tons of water-melons have been harvested this year. This figure is 260,000 tons or 54% higher than a past year harvest.

Past season water-melon was a rather feasible crop; as a result, the cultivation areas of this crop have been substantially extended, and the gross harvest has increased respectively this year.

And, the expected poor harvest of fruits forced some orchardists "to try a chance" with cucurbits crops.

Great harvest and low prices let the vendors significantly increase water-melon export. The market specialists have not possessed the details of exported volumes; but, the forecast is that the export shipments may constitute up to some dozens of thousands of tons.