What is the reason early-maturing watermelons are no longer in demand?
Starting in early May, watermelons gradually hit the market. This is the first batch of watermelons on the market this year. How is the market doing for them?
Lanwan Village in Haokou Town, Qianjiang City is a specialized watermelon-growing village. Today, grower Mr. Zheng is selling melons. Mr. Zheng told the reporter that the current price is 6 mao 5 fen per jin, and he will sell about 4,000 jin today.
Mr. Zheng has been growing watermelons for over a decade. His family has five greenhouses totaling 7 mu of land. For an old hand like him, the watermelon yield is naturally good.
Early-maturing watermelons come to market early and fetch a good price, but since last year, early-maturing watermelons have not been so popular.
Mr. Zheng said: "Last year the price was good early on, but it fell off later. The year before last the price was good; even at its worst it sold for 1.2 yuan per jin。”
Mr. Zheng's watermelons came to market on May 5 this year. Just like last year, the price was decent at first, reaching 1.5 yuan per jin, but as time went on, the price dropped lower and lower. A couple of days ago it even sold for 5 mao, and these past two days it has rebounded slightly. At this time in previous years, the melon price could reach 1.2 yuan,Why is this year's melon price only half of the year before last?？
Watermelon and melon expert Teacher Li Ping analyzed: "There has been too much rain this year, and the temperature is also very low. People have no desire to eat melons, so watermelon sales are hard to fire up.”
Mr. Zheng also said: "Selling watermelons is really selling weather. The hotter the weather, the better the melons sell.”
In addition,There is another reason for the price decline, which is the impact of outside melons encroaching on the market. Watermelons from the south came to market at the same time as our local melons。
Affected by these two factors, watermelon prices have continued to decline this year. In Lanwan Village, vendors come every day to buy watermelons. Mr. Su is a melon vendor who came from Jingzhou, and today he will haul away 12,000 jin of watermelons from here.
Mr. Su is a vendor at the Jingzhou Lianghu Agricultural Products Market. After hauling the melons to the Jingzhou Lianghu Agricultural Products Market, he wholesales them to surrounding counties and cities, more than 10,000 jin per day, and after selling out he goes back to the fields to restock.
In Lanwan Village, many villagers have already sold out their early-maturing watermelons. After selling these 4,000 jin of melons, Mr. Zheng's field watermelons will also be finished. Looking back on this year's watermelon season, Mr. Zheng said he experienced high watermelon prices and also the helplessness of low prices, but taking everything into account, he is basically satisfied.
After selling this season's melons, Mr. Zheng will plant another season of late-maturing watermelons in July. He is very confident about the later watermelon market. So, will the later watermelon market be as Mr. Zheng says?
Watermelon and melon expert Teacher Li Ping analyzed: "From now until June 20, prices will rise steadily. This is because early-maturing melons are nearing their end, while open-field watermelons have not yet come to market, creating a gap period. As long as the weather is good recently, prices will rise.”
As for the market for this year's mid-to-late-maturing watermelons, Teacher Li expressed great optimism. This is mainly because the yield of late-maturing watermelons this year will decline compared with previous years.
Teacher Li said: "There has been a lot of rain this year, which has greatly affected fruit setting in open-field watermelons, and coupled with disease, it is all showing up now."
With limited yield and normal weather, market demand will certainly not be poor. Teacher Li predicts that by July, the price of open-field seedless watermelons may be fairly ideal.
Editor's Note
Whether these melon growers make money all depends on the heavens' mood. However, according to reports, the El Nino phenomenon has basically ended. We also look forward to the melon growers having a good harvest.
(Reporters Yuan Xinlu, Zhou Beibei)
Reported by Long Shang Xing reporters