Open-field watermelon production in Almeria has been slashed by half this season. Vice-president of producers’ association Asaja-Almeria Pascual Soler said: “This year has been atypical. Usually in Almeria we have good quality, high volume crops of watermelon but this year a series of circumstances have combined to prevent that.”

Soler believes that salinity of water for irrigation as well as rainfall during fruit set have been to blame. In volume terms, the result has been a 50 per cent reduction in the crop. But despite the low volume, a price increase has not accompanied the crop which has been selling as low as €0.15 (12p) a kilo compared to €0.30 last season. “So we have half the price being paid and at best half the volume with the result that losses sustained by growers are very significant,” said Soler.

The transport strike in Spain in June also caused the sector further problems as growers continued to harvest their crop and store it. When the strike lifted, some of the product that came out of store was not fit for sale and the sheer volume of saleable quality fruit that was released onto the marketplace caused prices to fall.

Soler said the outcome is that the sector has experienced its worst season in 25 years. Only those growers that had production under cover as well as in the open field will have been able to salvage something from the campaign.

Topics