China’s Watermelon Price Declined Much More than Previous Years but Price Was Foreseen to Rise in Later Period

By CnAgri2017-09-05 09:36:05 Print In June and July of every year, a seasonal price decline would be found in China’s  watermelon prices. However, the watermelon price decline this year was much worse than previous years. The main reason was the imbalance between watermelon supply and demand.
 
a. Demand: from the end of June, large volumes of ripe watermelons were found everywhere and were launched into the market. Due to the rainstorms in the Southern major sales areas, the demand dropped sharply; besides, the transportation difficulties also helped the price decline. In mid July, the watermelon whole sale price dropped by 1RMB/kg in the main producing areas. The price dropped by 50% compared with the price of 2 RMB/kg found in June. However, the watermelon price decline was only about 30% from June to July last year.
b. Supply: on the one hand, due to the high temperature, large volumes of watermelons were ripe, plus the difficulties in storage and the long distance transportation, fruit farmers were eager to sell in the nearby market. As a result, watermelon prices dropped sharply. On the other hand, the overall outdoor watermelon supply increased slightly due to the downturn in the traditional crop market last year. However, the benefits from outdoor watermelons was generally high. As the watermelon cultivation and management are both simple and the cost is recoverable in the season. Therefore, it became farmers’ priority and the overall cultivation area also increased.
 
In late July, the rainstorms in the South ended. Watermelons were shipped to provinces such as Hunan, Guangdong and Sichuan. The watermelons in the markets of Gansu, Ningxia, Henan and Shandong were in a medium term. The watermelon supply in the market was foreseen to be sufficient in the coming month. However, as the watermelon price almost reached the bottom line, the wholesale price would remain stable in later period. By the end of August, as watermelons are gradually out of season, the watermelon wholesale price might bounce back.