North Carolina is winding down its watermelon production in mid-September. "Others in North Carolina will probably run through the end of September," says Matt Solana, VP of operations/supply chain with the Jackson Farming Company. "Right now, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Delaware, and Virginia all have watermelons, so they're all still going and will probably run through until the middle of October."
The state has seen its best harvest in August. This follows some crop loss thanks to rain and heat in the middle of July.
© Jackson Farming Co.
This also comes amidst a challenging season for watermelon, which at this time last year, saw a shorter supply. "There's been too much supply all year long," says Solana. "North Carolina planted later based on what we were hearing from Florida and Georgia and how much they were planting this year. Typically, Georgia runs into North Carolina, so many growers here planted about three weeks later to come off more into August. That's why there's been so much supply in North Carolina in August."
Add to that the challenges of demand this season. When production started in Florida, it was cold in the northeast portion of the U.S., with bad weather that continued through the FL season and into the start of the Georgia season. The reduction in volume going north due to the weather created a backup in fruit. This, coupled with the additional acreage in North Florida, drove the market to lows not seen in recent years.
This summer also saw challenges with shipping to Canada. While the state still did good business with Canada in June and into the first part of July, the country's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products such as melons left pricing stronger than usual. "So a lot of product for Canada came from Mexico instead of Florida. Canada also came in earlier than normal with its own production," says Solana.
Canada and tariffs
However, now that, as of September 1, Canada is lifting those retaliatory counter tariffs on a number of U.S. products, including melons, it's too late for it to impact the North Carolina watermelon supply positively. The state generally stops shipping to Canada the last week of July. "We wouldn't be shipping watermelons at this time of year to Canada because Canada has product. Also, with the freight, any excess product would be coming from Michigan or somewhere closer to Canada, freight-wise," says Solana.
Now that back-to-school has started as well, demand often softens for watermelon, given that retailers switch over to more fall-oriented programming featuring apples and pumpkins right after the final event of summer, Labor Day.
© Jackson Farming Co.
All of this has left pricing low. "We haven't seen a market like this since before COVID," says Solana.
He does add that companies such as Jackson Farming Co., which have steady contracted business, likely weathered the challenging season better than others. "The ones that got hurt would have been farmers who needed something to put on their land and tried to figure out what to put on there. They probably lost a big portion or all of that because they aren't in the watermelon business," he says, adding that likely next year, acreage will be lower given the difficult watermelon season this year.
Looking ahead, the company now turns its attention to transplanting fall broccoli that will be ready by the end of October and the start of the sweet potato harvest in preparation for Thanksgiving.
For more information:
Matt Solana
Jackson Farming Company
www.jfcmelons.com