July 3, 2009

Sponsored by:

Wiggins Wholesale Inc.

Texas Watermelons

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not yet listing prices for Texas watermelons. Following are prices for 24-inch bins of red-flesh melons from Georgia:

Seedless: Sizes 36s and 60s, $16-18; size 45s, $18.

Seeded: Size 35s, mostly $16.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, June 30.

The Shipping Scene

The weather has been hot, and current supplies are tight, but quality of Texas watermelons shipping for the Fourth of July and beyond should be exceptional, grower-shippers say.

Wiggins Wholesale Inc., Snook, Texas, started shipping watermelons from east Texas on schedule about three weeks ago, said James Wiggins, who owns the company with his sons Jody, Paul and Darren.

"We've got excellent quality," he said.

Except for very early in the season, the melons have not received any rain, and that can be a good thing, though it meant the company had to do a lot of watering.

"Dry weather usually makes for good-quality fruit," Wiggins said.

The company will have melons from Snook until early August and from other parts of Texas until mid-October.

The firm ships mostly seedless watermelons and will have plenty of medium (45-count), a few large (30- and 36-count) and a few small (60-count) melons, Wiggins said.

Prices have been strong because volume is not keeping up with demand. Wiggins does not expect that situation to change anytime soon because, as new areas come on, older areas deplete their supplies.

"There's not going to be an abundance of watermelon," he said.

Wiggins said demand for his watermelons last week was twice as great as his supply. He expected volume to pick up for a few more days before slowing down again.

The situation was similar at Jackson Melons Inc. in Henderson.

"We don't have enough supply," said Kevin Green, sales manager.

The company started picking about a week later than usual - June 17 in central Texas and June 24 in east Texas - so supplies will be tight for the Fourth, he said.

Temperatures as high as 104 degrees also were taking their toll in east Texas, Green said.

"We need rain, or (the melons) are going to burn up."

The central Texas crop is irrigated, he added.

Green said he would describe the crop as "fair" so far - "It's not great, but it's not horrible." But still, he said, quality is "good."

Seedless watermelons have been in especially short supply for the past two weeks, he said. Sizing is "O.K.," but large melons have been harder to come by.

Although market prices have been good, many growers made prior commitments for the Fourth of July holiday and are not able to take advantage of the strong daily markets, he said.

Green expected to see good quality and improved supplies when harvesting stars in west Texas around July 25.

Dee Eddy, sales manager for William E. McBryde Inc. in Uvalde, seemed ecstatic about the company's watermelon program.

"So far, the watermelon deal for the month of June has been exceptional," he said earlier this week. "The size has been good, and we've had good yields in the fields."

Prices are strong, and demand is heavy heading into the July Fourth weekend, he said.

"We've done real well," he said. "We can't complain about much right now."

As of June 20, Texas growers had shipped about 353 million pounds of watermelons, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The figure for the similar period last year was 321.3 million pounds. Total volume for 2008 was 664.5 million pounds.

It will be a busy holiday weekend for Mollie Bennett, the Texas Watermelon Association's queen. She'll be promoting watermelons at several locations of Lubbock-based United Supermarkets LLC July 2-5, said Wanda Letson, the association's executive secretary.

The Texas Department of Agriculture is working with the Texas Watermelon Association and the Hyatt Regency in Austin to cut and distribute fresh Texas watermelon to people who will go to Lady Bird Lake to watch the July Fourth fireworks show, said Veronica Obregon, chief communications officer for the agriculture department.

The Texas Department of Agriculture also is working with the Texas Watermelon Association to build a watermelon Web site that will allow consumers and buyers to find watermelon suppliers/growers in Texas, she said.

(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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