The first Spanish melons and watermelons of the season are due to reach European supermarket shelves this week, with producers hopeful of building on last year’s positive export sales, despite an overall decline in the production area.
Producers in the Andalusian regions of Almeria and Granada, who grow the fruit under plastic, have begun harvesting this campaign’s crop following a slight delay, with 74 per cent of melons and 62 per cent of watermelons dedicated for markets including Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK.
Available products will include the season’s first seedless watermelons from Spain’s leading fresh produce group Anecoop, which will be marketed by Dutch importer Hillfresh under the CLINK brand.
This year, the branded range will feature the striped Reina de Corazones variety, a new, red-fleshed, black watermelon and several mini watermelons, including the seedless Precious Petit variety and micro-seed premium watermelons.
Despite the production area in Almeria showing a declining trend over recent years, Andalusia still remains Spain’s leading producer of melons and watermelons, last year accounting for 140,000 tonnes and 340,000 tonnes respectively.
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