Speak to any producer in Spain’s melon sector and it becomes clear that, in spite of the economic turmoil engulfing the country, prospects for exporters are far from negative. But this is not to say that recent times have not been without their challenges for everyone from the smallest producers to the largest, such as Anecoop.
According to Anecoop’s melon specialist, Nacho Juarez, the last year has been a period defined by summer 2011’s E. coli crisis, a struggling economy and unfavourable weather.
“The campaign was not positive due to a number of factors that had nothing to do with products, such as the E. coli crisis and mild summer temperatures, which didn’t encourage consumption,” he explains.
Despite being unconnected with Spanish fresh produce, Juarez says the German E. coli outbreak affected all seasonal production, causing Anecoop’s exports to fall by more than 60 per cent in the space of 10 days, with a loss of over €10 million.
However, the company is confident of an improvement in its fortunes this year, and estimates it will produce 80,000-90,000 tonnes of its principal product in the category, watermelons, during this season.
“In watermelons we have maybe the best and most complete range available, with a broad sales calendar (April to September),” says Juarez.
Anecoop’s range features four watermelons - seedless red, seedless yellow, seedless mini and black, seeded or seedless - which have performed consistently well in markets.
The company plans to support the continued development of its melon business during the season with a major promotional campaign in several countries, which will include point-of-sale offers and other actions targeted at the end consumer.
However, none of this is to suggest Anecoop has been immune from Spain’s problems. “Since the start of the crisis we have stressed the need for retailers to increase prices because the cost of living has changed and they have changed prices accordingly,” adds Juarez.
Meanwhile Brazil’s largest melon supplier, Agrícola Famosa, entered Senegal last year and has begun exporting this season after setting up two fully functioning melon farms across 100ha in Thiès, 90km from Dakar. Over the next three years the company plans to invest over €10m and expand production to 600ha, with new varieties due to come on line by 2014.
“At Agrícola Famosa Senegal, harvesting started at the end of March and will finish in May,” reveals Andrei Mamede, commercial manager of Agrícola Famosa. “We are expecting around 3,000 tonnes of melons - Piel de Sapo and Yellow Honeydew - to be exported to Europe and South Africa.”
Mamede says the results so far have exceeded expectations thanks to the group’s understanding of the need to adapt certain farming techniques to Senegal’s distinctive environmental and soil conditions.
“The first fields are showing plants with great vigour and perfect rooting, and we are forecasting excellent-quality fruit.”
The melon fields are being operated under the same farming methodology used by Agrícola Famosa in Brazil, which has required dozens of containers to be shipped from Brazil to bring to Senegal all the heavy equipment, tractors, irrigation materials, pumps and mulching materials required to produce quality melons.
“Agrícola Famosa has selected its top personnel to either rotate to Senegal or give support to the operation from our head office in Brazil,” says Mamede. “The project is being run by a Spanish-Brazilian agronomist called Luis Alvares.
“Together with a couple of other Brazilian agronomists, the Senegalese staff - composed of agronomists, technicians and administrative personnel - have all been trained in Brazil in various aspects of the business, from production to sales.” -
FLAVOURS OF THE FUTURE
Wageningen University’s Dr Wouter Verkerke and HillFresh hosted a meeting of seed breeders at Fruit Logistica in February. Having worked in partnership to investigate the flavour of Galia melons, they invited breeders to consider a quantitative flavour model that they think can improve the consistency of melon quality throughout the year.
Verkerke developed an algorithm to predict the flavour of tomatoes and is now ready to build similar models for other products, starting with sweet pepper and - possibly - melons. Inputs for the algorithm include Brix, juice percentage and a measurement of texture. He believes that such assessments are quicker and cheaper than qualitative discussions with consumer panels - which are still useful at a later stage - allow for the screening of more samples and produce an objective standard against which to measure fruit in all seasons.
In practice, those who join the partnership could use his flavour model to check new varieties against it - and eliminate some of them - before they enter more expensive panel discussions. Verkerke believes a Galia flavour model is a two-year project that would need a budget of around €200,000. Once that is complete, models for other melon varieties would follow more quickly.
MAKING IT BIG WITH MINIS
The need to maintain a strong export position makes innovation a priority for many melon growers, not the least of which is Procomel, a Murcia-based firm that is experiencing particular success with a mini variety.
As the company’s managing director, Cele Buendía (pictured), explains, Sugar Baby Gold was found as much by chance as by design, but it has proven to be a happy accident.
Launched in 2009, the melon was discovered in Procomel’s experimental fields, a mutation that happened to contain many of the characteristics the firm had spent years trying to develop.
“We spent several years looking for a small melon of around 1.5-2kg, but which offered the same level of quality and taste as the rest of the fruit we produce,” he says.
“In this case the result was achieved completely naturally. We discovered it - a natural mutation - in one of our experimental fields, a yellow-skinned, orange-fleshed round melon of typically 1.5kg in size.
“It took us by surprise because nobody had been expecting this kind of melon to appear and when we tested it we found it had an exquisite taste.”
However, Buendía says it took Procomel’s researchers a further two years to identify the specific generation of parent melons from which the variety was derived.
“We only produce the melon three months a year and only in Murcia, but Sugar Baby Gold is a delicious fruit and, when customers try it, they come back and ask for more.”
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