August 29 2007, 08:55

The harvesting season for melon and watermelon to be over one month earlier than usually

The specialists of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" inform about the finishing season of melon and watermelon sales in Ukraine. According to the farmers' messages, the distinguishing feature of the recent season was the severest drought and the abnormally high temperatures leading to the earlier start of the season and its earlier end.

In communication to "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" specialists the farmers stated the considerably reduced melon and watermelon yield in practically all farms of the southern region. Making the preliminary conclusions, even those farmers informed about minimum 20-30% reduction of the harvest comparing to the previous year who grew products on the irrigated lands. Those farmers fully lost the harvest of melons and watermelons who failed to fully observe the production technology.

So, in the second half of August many producers had almost no free volumes of melons and watermelons; this fact stimulated the price growth in this segment in the conditions of the steady high demand. As of today, watermelon is quite successfully sold for $0.2-0.34/kg on EXW terms; this price is minimum twice as high comparing to the previous year data. The farmers say, they are able to just partially satisfy the demand for melons and watermelons; they admit the possibility of the prices for late melon and watermelon varieties to further increase.

In their turn, the companies - exporters of watermelons also inform about almost twofold decrease of the supplies. The foreign buyers have the considerably increased prices comparing to the previous year; despite of this fact, the main reason of the exports reduction is the lack of product volumes on the inner market and the dramatic price growth in the peak season in Ukraine. By the present moment the exports of watermelons and melons have been practically over; but, past year melons and watermelons were exported even in October. In the beginning of the season the exports were performing even more actively than usually. For the first time in the history, as soon as in June Ukraine exported 269,000 tons of watermelons (Russia, Estonia and Belarus); watermelon exports have never been done in June before.

You can learn the perspectives of the watermelon and melon market in 2008 from the leading experts of this industry during the fourth international conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2007. Meeting New Leader", to be held on December 4th-6th 2007 on the territory of the National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine" in Kyiv. The online registration form for the conference participants is available here.