May 8, 2009

Georgia Cantaloupes

Market Snapshot*

Georgia cantaloupes are not yet shipping, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture was reporting the following prices on 24-inch bins of athena variety cantaloupes from Florida:

120 and 130 counts, $180-190; 150 and 160 counts, $150-165.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, May 6.

The Shipping Scene

Georgia growers should start picking cantaloupes in earnest by early June, a few days later than usual, but some melons could start trickling into supermarkets by the end of May, they say.

Lakeland, Fla.-based Farm-Wey Produce Inc. may receive cantaloupes from its Georgia suppliers around June 1, but most shipments should start arriving about June 7, said president Chris Wey.

Rain and cold weather that blanketed the region in April will cause a slight delay, but quality should be good, and Wey does not expect volume to be affected.

Georgia cantaloupes typically are available from late May until mid-July.

It's too early to predict sizing of this season's melons, but Wey is optimistic.

"We have really good sizing here in Florida, and normally, what starts out down here continues on (in Georgia)," he said.

He also was happy with current prices, but he said prices typically drop a bit as volume picks up and the deal transitions to Georgia, later overlapping with North Carolina, South Carolina and Indiana.

Ralph Eubanks & Sons Farm Produce Inc., Sale City, Ga., should kick off its cantaloupe program June 2 or 3, about a week later than usual, said Trey Eubanks, vice president.

Some growers laid plastic in their fields to guide rainwater away from the melons in early April, he said. As a result, the company experienced "no real damage" from precipitation.

"Cantaloupes don't like a lot of rain," he said. "Too much water in the cantaloupes takes away from the sugar content and reduces the shelf life."

The past two Mays have been extremely dry, he added, but June can be a different story, sometimes playing host to "pop-up showers" that unexpectedly dump tons of rain on the melon crop.

Weather is warm right now, he said, and that should lead to good sizes shortly after the harvest begins. The first two or three days of the season usually produce 2.5- to 3-pounders, but within a week, the melons should weigh around 6 pounds - just what consumers look for.

Pricing could depend on where the price of Florida melons winds up, he said. If Florida prices end up low, Georgia prices likely will start low and, if that happens, it may be difficult to get those prices back up.

If the Southeast has good growing weather and the West has a bumper crop, he said, "You may see some cheap cantaloupe."

Georgia could face more competition from growers in the West this year than last because last season's high fuel costs were an incentive for Eastern buyers to source close to home, he said.

Steve Sumner Farms in Omega, Ga., will get under way between Memorial Day and June 1, said owner Steve Sumner.

"Right now, everything is looking good," he said this week.

The melons endured some stress during the growing season, but no more than usual, he said. And warm weather and good growing conditions should lead to good sizing.

Sumner said he is optimistic that prices will be "decent" this year, adding that some growers may have lost some product to rain this spring.

Although current figures are not yet available, Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association in La Grange, said farm gate value for Georgia cantaloupes in 2007 reached $23 million, with growers planting 5,000 acres of the melons.

(By Tom Burfield, Western correspondent for The Packer. The Packer and Red Book Credit Services are part of food360º, a division of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill.)

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