Andalusia trade association Hortyfruta is stepping up the education campaign in the region to encourage growers to pick melons and watermelons only when ripe.
This year the organisation has prepared a full-page, full-colour announcement, pictured, to feature in its members’ in-house communications, which tells growers to protect their own futures and those of everyone by not cutting green fruit.
The message first went out this month and will continue over the coming weeks to try and reach as many growers as possible.
A Hortyfruta spokeswoman said: “At Hortyfruta, we believe that the marketing window for melons and watermelons is relatively short and any untoward incident in the marketplace could engender a loss of confidence on the part of our clients in the product, as well as a fall in market values and damage to the image of the sector as a whole.”
The organisation, which is working hand in hand with the regional agriculture executive, is also publishing telephone numbers for those who suspect a grower or marketer of working immature fruit to alert the authorities.
There has been a massive investment on the part of growers to improve biological control in melon and watermelon crops in the region. Hortyfruta now calculates that 60 per cent of total production area of both crops in the region is under biological control and three billion predator insects have been released this season to control white fly and thrips.
Andalusia accounts for 60 per cent of Spanish watermelon production and 23 per cent of melon production. It is Spain’s second-most important region in terms of production volume and is the leader in exports, as internationally popular varieties Galia, Honeydew and Cantaloupe predominate.
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