Market Update

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not reporting prices on Georgia watermelons. Thirty-six-inch bins of size 50 red-flesh watermelons from North Carolina were selling for $10-11 per cwt. Size 45s and 60s in 24-inch bins were selling for $10-11 per cwt.

* Prices from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Fruit & Vegetable Market News, Aug.8.

The Shipping Scene

It's been a tough summer for some Georgia watermelon growers, but retailers had plenty of good-quality fruit to sell, and supermarket prices eventually headed downward to make those melons more affordable for consumers.

Leger & Son Inc., Cordele, started shipping seedless and seeded watermelons around June 10, as usual, said owner Greg Leger.

Rain was sparse this year, but growers were able to water their melons through irrigation. Lack of water actually boosts yields because it reduces the incidence of disease that can be caused by too much water, he said.

"It's really been a good year for quality and tonnage," Leger said. "There's been good interior quality and high sugar." There's also been a good range of sizes with 15-pound size 45s most common.

A heat wave over the past week pushed temperatures past the 100-degree mark in some areas, which was expected to speed up ripening, making plenty of volume available from growers who are still shipping.

Leger & Son ships throughout the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and occasionally to Texas, if growers in that state come up short, Leger said. Georgia watermelons can offer a freight advantage because they don't have to be shipped all the way from the West Coast, he added.

Leger expected to have watermelons through Labor Day. He also will have a fall crop in October and November that will start harvesting in late September or early October.

Dean Tucker of Dean Tucker Farms in Sumner has finished shipping his summer crop and said the season couldn't end soon enough.

Tucker, who has grown watermelons for 22 years, said, "It was the worst watermelon season I've ever seen." Statewide, thousands of acres of watermelons were lost because retailers were reluctant to promote them, he said, adding that some growers were lucky to break even.

Tucker plans to start a fall deal in late September and hoped for better conditions then.

"Right now, it's looking pretty good," he said this week.

In Lake Wales, Fla., owner Arnold Mack said McMelon Inc. shipped its last couple of loads of Georgia watermelons this week.

An oversupply situation existed almost all summer, and only now is the situation starting to improve as growers finish up their melon deals, he said. Late and overlapping plantings coupled with high retail prices early in the season resulted in a supply exceeds demand situation.

With the Easter freeze slowing down some Georgia crops and prompting replanting in some growing regions, uncertainty existed, and retailers were reluctant to run promotions early in the summer, growers said.

When supplies came on strong, retailers were slow to lower prices, leaving a lot of melons unsold.

Mack said the oversupply is abating, but the season is almost over. Quality on his last loads was "average," he said. The next couple of weeks look better from a grower's perspective as supplies go down and, growers hope, prices may go up.

Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association, La Grange, said the late crop caused by the freeze meant the crop did not hit its normal window.

At Hatcher Produce Co. Inc., Forest Park, Ga., salesman Jason Drantham said the company has about two more weeks left of its Georgia deal, which has run longer than usual because of the Easter freeze.

Good growing conditions after the freeze resulted in good quality on the melons, which the company sells in 36-count, 24-inch bins and in 50-count, 36-inch bins. Prices were a "reasonable" 8 cents per pound, he said, and volume was high.

Per capita consumption of watermelons, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics, has increased from about 13 pounds in 2004 to 15.8 pounds in 2006, the National Watermelon Promotion Board, Orlando, Fla., reported.

(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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