Del Monte has suspended the production of melons and watermelons in the Brazilian state of Ceará, according to reports in the Brazilian media.
Del Monte legal manager Newton Assunção told the Diário do Nordeste that the group was "temporarily suspending the production of melons", as a result of the retracting European market for the fruit and the devaluation of the euro against the Brazilian real.
The company traditionally produces some 3.25 million boxes of melons each season in Brazil, growing varieties including cantaloupes and seedless watermelons for export, with around 2,800 workers employed across 1,300 acres during the peak of the campaign.
Assunção said Del Monte has “no plan to produce for the domestic market” and noted that production would only retun to normal next season if the price of fruit in Europe rises once more.
It is not the first time that Del Monte has halted production at its Brazilian operations, with the group suspending the production of pineapples in 2009.
