This season 800 thousand tonnes of crop is expected and close to 130 thousand decares of land is covered with cultivable watermelons. However the cool and rainy weather in Adana has decreased demand for this fruit.
Without demand, the price per kilo of spring harvest watermelons was found to be 2.5 lira from the field and this price quickly decreased. Some growers in the Karatas district of Adana, were offered 10 kurus a kilo by dealers on the basis of low demand, yet on the Adana City Municipality Market price list the first class of watermelons are listed at 90 kurus a kilo and the second class 40 kurus per kilo.
The Chamber of Agricultural Engineers’ (ZMO) Adana Branch President Semih karademir, said that watermelons are sold in supermarkets for between 1 and 1.5 lira a kilo, and the price fall to 35 kurus from the fields is just temporary.
Rainy weather reduced the demand for watermelons, states Semih Karademir, and this situation is reflected in the price. Karademir explains that, spring crop watermelons are on the market now, but in two weeks the medium term harvest will begin and the price of watermelons from the field is expected to rise above 40 kurus.
The spring crop of watermelons per acre produced a yield of around 7-8 tonnes, Karademir explains, “One acre of watermelons costs the grower close to 2 thousand lira. The spring crop per acre gave around 7-8 tonnes of produce. Growers are now selling this produce from the fields for 35 kurus per kilo, this is not a good price for them. Nevertheless the medium term watermelons in the soil will yield around 10-12 tonnes per acre. Watermelons selling for 35-40 kurus, in this case, would be very good for growers. The weather is warming, and due to the month of Ramadan approaching, I suspect that in two weeks the supply will increase. If growers can sell 11-12 of product per acre for 40 kurus a kilo, it will be good.”
According to data from the Turkish Union of Chambers of Agricultural (TZOB) out of 28 million 569 thousand 781 tonnes of fruit and vegetables production, 3 million 885 thousand 617 tons of watermelon was harvested, as of 2014 in Turkey. According to the production figures for 2015, 3 million 919 thousand 962 tonnes is expected. In terms of watermelon production in our country, Adana is ranked first with 18.7% of production taking place there. Antalya, İzmir and Diyarbakır follow. In recent years, our country was ranked second in the world behind China. Last year Iran took Turkey’s place by a very small margin in production. China, takes first place with arguably a very large margin in the amount of production. After importing a necessary amount of produce at the start of the busy harvest season, from May customs duties on watermelons became 86.4%.
