UK importers are reporting a crisis in the melon market as soaring temperatures surprisingly fail to boost consumption.
“Galia rices are up by about five to six per cent on last season,” one importer told FPJ. “But sizes are getting smaller because it is just not worth their while for Spanish growers to send bigger sizes to the UK when not seeing good enough prices.”
As a result Galia has gone down from representing 30 per cent of the market to more like 20-23 per cent, he estimated. “No-one can afford to buy or ship them.”
There is also a problem on the yellow-melon market in the UK.
“Some people still choosing yellow melons, but sized like cricket balls,
and the real problem is because there is not much new planting this year coming on stream, the situation is unlikely to change any time soon.”
Almeria and Murcia in the south-east of Spain are the main growing areas supplying the UK in the late spring and summer. “But they both had a bad start to the year and flowers did not set properly,” another importer explained. “The result is that we have not been getting the same yield off the crop.”
But the difficult commercial outlook is not just linked to Galia melons. “The UK is the sole outlet for yellow melons in Europe and as the supermarkets really only want size 5s and 6s, there is no outlet for the rest of the crop,” said the trader. “Therefore volumes are declining year on year as producers do not ant to plant if they do not have a market for their smaller sizes.”
But most disappointing has been the speed of uptake in the UK. “Despite the hot weather, melons have just not realised the prices we had hoped, especially given a shorter crop,” said the trader.
On the Galia front, he concurs with his import colleague. “It is partly due to the weather, and also prices in Europe are more interesting to exporters than here in the UK.” The only melon in any demand is watermelon. “And that is being promoted so aggressively in supermarket, caterers and small retailers are better off buying it in the multiples,” he concluded.
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