About two weeks ago, EastFruit wrote about unprecedented in intensity and duration rains in the first half of March 2022 in Uzbekistan, which were replaced by an anomalous cooling in the second half of March. Moreover, two waves of frosts were observed during this period, that covered mainly the central strip of the country.

One of the consequences of the March weather anomalies for melon growers was the later than usual planting of seedlings of early watermelon varieties in the southern regions of the country. The incessant rains and the subsequent cold snap this month delayed the start of works by about 10-12 days, farmers of the Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan noted in an interview with Khalq suzi (People’s Word). Thus, the beginning of the watermelon harvesting season in 2022 is expected in the first ten days of June – 12-15 days later than last year.

Growers of the Kukdala district of the Kashkadarya region are among the first in Uzbekistan to bring wholesale volumes of watermelon to the market. To do this, back in January, they begin to grow seedlings of early varieties of watermelon in pots, and at the end of the first or beginning of the second decade of March, they plant these seedlings on the ground under film tunnels.

According to the melon grower Gayum Tolipov from the village of Utamayli (Kukdala district), this year watermelon seedlings were planted in the fields under the film on March 22 – 10 days later than last year. Accordingly, the harvesting is also postponed for 12-15 days. Apparently, the harvest season this year will start in the first decade of June, while last year watermelons were harvested in the third decade of May there. This season, he planted 6 000 seedlings of early-ripening watermelon per 1 ha and plans to get a crop of about 30 tonnes.

According to Khalq suzi, 1 004 households live in the village of Utamayli, and the vast majority of them are engaged in the cultivation of watermelon, mainly early varieties. The total area of ​​watermelon plantations in this village is about 2 000 ha.

Сообщение The season of early watermelons in Uzbekistan will start later due to weather anomalies появились сначала на EastFruit.

At a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan on December 17, 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Esenmyrat Orazgeldiev, who is in charge of the agro-industrial complex, reported on the work on reducing the area planted with cotton by increasing its yield. The vacant land will be used for cultivating potatoes, vegetables, and melons, as well as for the production of silkworm cocoons.

According to the website “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”, the area for growing cotton will be reduced by 40 thousand hectares, from the current 620 thousand to 580 thousand hectares. To date, 55,550 hectares of land have been allocated for potatoes, vegetables, melons and other food crops. Thus, this area will increase to 95,550 hectares.

Read also: Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are increasing early apple exports to Russia, while Uzbekistan reduces them

In 2020, Turkmenistan increased its purchases of potatoes in the EAEU countries eightfold. After the closure of the Turkmen-Iranian border due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, there was an acute shortage of potatoes and a sharp increase in their cost in the country. In February, the state media reported that this year Turkmenistan plans to significantly increase the volume of its own potato harvest.

It was decided to increase the annual plan for the production of silkworm cocoons by 200 tonnes, from the current 2100 to 2300 tonnes. Additional volumes of cocoons will be grown in Akhal (+145 tonnes), Balkan (+25 tonnes) and Mary (+30 tonnes) regions.

Growing cocoons has been unprofitable for many years. Many state employees in the villages are forced to do this. People spend time and money on it. Mulberry trees, the leaves of which are the only food for worms, have been cut down almost everywhere. The vacant areas were used for the cultivation of cotton and wheat. To feed the worms, people travel around nearby villages and buy branches of mulberry trees from people growing them in their yards.

Сообщение Turkmenistan is replacing cotton with potatoes, vegetables and melons появились сначала на EastFruit.

September keeps breaking anti-records for Ukrainian producers of watermelons – according to EastFruit analysts, the prices remain at one of the lowest levels among other countries monitored by the project as it was a month ago. Although the end of last week showed a slight upward price trend for Ukrainian watermelons – the average wholesale price increased from 0.8 UAH/kg ($ 0.03) at the beginning of the previous week to 1 UAH/kg ($ 0.038), this price range is two times lower than in the same period of 2019 and 2020.

In this context, the average price of watermelons on the Russian market has remained stable for 2 weeks and amounts to 10 RUB/kg ($ 0.14). The situation is similar in Belarus – the average wholesale price of watermelons is in the range of 0.65 BYN/kg ($ 0.26). The price on the Georgian market, on the contrary, increased from 0.4 GEL/kg ($ 0.13) to 0.7 GEL/kg ($ 0.23).

As EastFruit reported, Ukrainian watermelon market is now characterized by the lowest prices over the past four seasons given a large harvest, despite poor weather conditions in spring and early summer in the main producing region – Kherson region.

At the same time, local growers note that today they cannot sell their products in wholesale even at 0.3-0.5 UAH/kg ($ 0.011-0.019) – half the cost of watermelon production.

A producer from the Kherson region Mykola Moiseenko notes that he has invested about 300,000 UAH ($ 11,275) in the field of watermelons this year. At the same time, the proceeds from the sale of Talisman watermelons amounted to only 100,000 UAH ($ 3,758).

“Of the 6 hectares planted by us in spring, we have managed to sell products only from ​​3.5 hectares, even though the melon season in Ukraine has shifted by about 3 weeks due to the cold spring and early summer. We are ready to give the rest of the harvest from the field for free, but we have not found yet people to take it, “the producer notes, adding that most likely he will have to plow the field along with the remaining harvest on it during the autumn cultivation of the field.

Mykola Moiseenko also adds that watermelons are now starting to overripe, and there are many more sellers than buyers in local wholesale markets.

According to market players, as a rule, large farms sold all their harvest, as they had pre-signed contracts for supplies to retail chains.

“Based on this, small and medium-sized producers of watermelons in Ukraine should follow the example of large farms, namely cooperate to create batches and look for buyers even at the stage of planting,” a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Kateryna Zvereva says.

The FAO consultant adds that in order to find buyers, watermelon growers should do market research and invest in marketing. “Growing a product for which there is a long-term demand is the right strategy for a producer of fruits and vegetables. Otherwise, small and medium-sized producers are at a disadvantage with the goods they cannot sell,” Kateryna Zvereva notes.

According to Kateryna Zvereva, a producer of fruit and vegetables, in particular, watermelons, gives employment and pays many people – suppliers of seeds, technologies, plant protection products, workers in the fields, processors, retailers and traders. “But without systemic marketing and reliable sales channels, he becomes hostage to the situation – when he needs to pay employees, service providers, but there are no sales, or the price offered by the market does not cover the grower’s production costs,” the FAO consultant summarizes.

Сообщение Watermelon riot: Ukrainian growers are ready to leave the watermelon on the fields появились сначала на EastFruit.

This week, the supply of watermelons from local farms has significantly increased on the Russian market, which resulted in their rapidly declining prices, according to analysts of the EastFruit project. Growers explain the negative price dynamics by the fact that due to hot weather, ripening of watermelons has significantly accelerated. At the same time, drought in the southern regions negatively affects the quality of watermelons, increasing the rate of their price decline.

According to the daily monitoring of the EastFruit project, watermelon prices in Russian farms decreased by an average of 20% over the past week and today farmers sell them at 5-13 RUB/kg ($ 0.07-0.18/kg) depending on the quality and region of production.

It is worth noting that today growers can hardly keep prices for watermelons even at this level, since their yield in the current season has significantly increased, while  consumers are not always content with the quality.

It should be added that watermelons on the Russian market are now on average 46% cheaper than in the same period last year. Moreover, key market players do not foresee a noticeable improvement in this segment. They say, the prices will continue to fall, as growers will try to sell the available watermelons as quickly as possible.

Сообщение The price of watermelon in Russia fell below last year’s level появились сначала на EastFruit.

The first batches of early varieties of watermelons appeared on the Ukrainian market this week, according to analysts of the EastFruit project. According to the growers, the season of watermelons this year began almost 2 weeks later than a year earlier, due to unfavorable weather conditions.

Growers also report that rain and hail in spring caused significant damage to the watermelon harvest. At the same time, some producers even had to replant the area planted with watermelons again.

Today, only some growers from the Kherson region sell watermelons. The prices for the first batches are at the level of 9-12 UAH/kg ($ 0.33-0.44/kg), which is on average 2.7 times more expensive than in the same period last year. The limited supply of watermelons on the market allowed Ukrainian growers to start the season with such high prices. For comparison: on the 10th of July last year, the price varied in the range of 3-5 UAH/kg ($ 0.11-0.18/kg) in Ukraine, but the supply was large and prices were declining rapidly.

This season, growers plan to enter the market with local watermelons more activly after July 20. As a rule, the peak season for open field watermelon in Ukraine falls on mid-August, and then prices in this segment begin to decline sharply. In the current season, growers plan to keep prices at a fairly high level, since they had to be sown. Thus, it is difficult to say when the peak of supplies of watermelon from open field will begin in Ukraine.

Сообщение The first batches of early varieties of watermelons are on the market in Ukraine появились сначала на EastFruit.

Farmers of the Khatlon region of Tajikistan with a total allotment of 15,500 hectares for melons and gourds, produced 590,000 tons of watermelons, melons, and pumpkins in 2020. This figure was 80% of the total volume of melons and gourds grown in all of Tajikistan. These statistics were reported by the regional department of agriculture. In the coming year, the region’s farmers intend to obtain more than 600,000 tons of melons in all forms of farming.

Khatlon region is the largest agricultural producer in Tajikistan. Last year, the agrarians of this region produced about 50% of the total volume of agricultural production. It produced 57% of the volume of vegetables, 64% of grains, 60% of raw cotton, 57% of meat, 50% of milk, and 43% of fruits and grapes.

In 2020, in all forms of management of the region, the main sowing was carried out on an area of ​​426,000 hectares and repeated sowing on 130, 600.

Read also: Tajikistan increasing melon production and watermelon exports to Baltics

The region produced 985,000 tons of grain, 277,000 tons of cotton, 1.47 million tons of vegetables, 193,000 tons of potatoes, 590,000 tons of melons, 210,000 tons of fruits, and 107,000 tons of grapes. All of these indicators, except for potatoes, are 1.5-20% higher than the agricultural production data from 2019 in the Khatlon region.

In total, the region produced crop products for more than 12.3 billion somonis ($1.08 billion). Some of its products have been exported. More than 108,000 tons of various horticulture products were exported, including more than 92,000 tons of vegetables, which is 120% more than in 2019. The main export product of the region is onions. Also, citrus fruits, melons, grapes, pistachios, and almonds are exported from here.

Сообщение 80% of all melons and gourds grown in Tajikistan came from Khatlon in 2020 появились сначала на EastFruit.

Watermelon Day is celebrated by countries around the world on August 3rd. Tajikistan is no exception, especially since its production volume of melon crops is constantly growing in the country. Watermelons first appeared in Tajikistan around the 11th-12th centuries according to NIAT Khovar.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Tajikistan stated the country had a high yield of melons this season. Due to the high supply, prices for watermelons and melons were two times lower than a year ago. If, for example, a medium-sized watermelon costs 20 somonis at the beginning of last year’s season, then this year it was purchased for about 10 somonis.

Watermelon harvesting was in full swing on the farms of the Khatlon region in August. They also collected melons grown on dry land in Khatlon and the Gissar Valley. This led to plenty of watermelons and melons in the markets of Tajikistan.

The Khatlon region provides melons not only to the entire Republic, but also exports watermelons and melons to Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The first batch of Tajik watermelons from the 2020 harvest was sent to the Irkutsk region of Russia with a sticker “Grown with Love by Tajik Farmers.”

Tajikistan had its first watermelon shipment to the Baltics in 2019 as a pilot effort.  This year the Khatlon Watermelon Cooperative successfully exported 20 tons of watermelons to Lithuania.

Read also: Unprecedented cheapness of vegetables and fruits in Tajikistan in 2020 – causes and consequences

According to the Department of Crop Production of the Ministry of Agriculture of Tajikistan, melon crops have been planted on more than 18,000 hectares this year, which is 2,000 hectares more than last year. Also, to date, more than 20,000 tons of melons have been harvested from 752 hectares, which is 12,300 tons more than last year’s figure for the same period.

While melons were being sold, melon seeds were planted under cover. These were imported early ripening varieties like Nexia, Crimson, Ataman, Photon, and others. In Tajikistan, there are about 70 varieties of melons and about 15 varieties of watermelons. The yield on rainfed lands is 2 times lower but with irrigation, you can get up to 400 centners per hectare.

“The average yield of melons crops this year was 268.4 centners per hectare, which is a good indicator,” the Ministry of Agriculture believes.

Сообщение Tajikistan increasing melon production and watermelon exports to Baltics появились сначала на EastFruit.

According to EastFruit analysts, Ukraine has updated the record exports for melons and watermelons in 2020 shipping almost 36 thousand tons of fruits to the foreign markets. Thus, the previous export record set in 2018 was exceeded by 87% at once, and last year’s export figure was exceeded by 2.3 times. Watermelons are traditionally the main export product in the category, while melons exports reach only around 2 thousand tons. However, exports of melons were also record-high.

“The sharp increase in the exports of watermelons and melons from Ukraine in 2020 were possible thanks to favorable circumstances for Ukrainian suppliers. High prices for watermelon and melon in the EU, an increase in the production of melons in Ukraine and a decrease in the production of watermelons and melons in Russia have allowed Ukrainian exporters to boost exports, ”says Andriy Yarmak, economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO).

According to EastFruit price monitoring data https://east-fruit.ru/en/product-group-selection/, prices for watermelons in Poland – the main importer of watermelons and melons from Ukraine, were on average 60% higher than in 2019. At the same time, prices for watermelons in Ukraine were by far the lowest in the region. By the beginning of September 2020, when exports of watermelons from Ukraine are usually the most active, the gap in wholesale prices for watermelons between Ukraine and Poland reached seven and a half times, or 46 US cents per kilogram. In Ukraine at that time, watermelon was sold for only 7 US cents per kg, and in Poland – for 53 US cents.

In Russia, which in recent years has been actively pushing Ukraine out of the EU market, watermelons prices at the same time were close to US 0,27 per kg, which is almost four times more expensive than in Ukraine. Accordingly, the Russian watermelon could not compete with the Ukrainian one on the markets of the EU countries. Moreover, there are unconfirmed reports from wholesalers that this year the Ukrainian watermelons even entered the Russian market through countries that did not fall under the so called “anti-sanctions” of the Russian Federation.

Noteworthy the geography of exports of Ukrainian melons in 2020 got wider. For the first time Romania appeared among the major buyers. Moreover, Romania also increased its purchases of watermelons in Ukraine in 2020 very sharply.

“In order to maintain the pace of exports from Ukraine, growers should focus on the requirements of the EU markets, because the traditional large watermelons with seeds is constantly losing market share in this region. Yes, 2020 was unusual – many people stayed at home and were more willing to buy even a large watermelon, but the future is undoubtedly with smaller seedless watermelons. Logistics remain another problem in Ukraine – dredging the Dnieper in its northern part, and liberalization of transportation by water, will allow Ukraine to gain an advantage in the supply of watermelons, melons, vegetables and fruits from the southern regions to the northern ones and even to Belarus, from where the products can be delivered very quickly and cheaply in containers to any point in the EU, as the Ukrainian Horticultural Association has repeatedly stated. ”, explains Andriy Yarmak.

Taking into account the increased exports of watermelons in 2020, Ukraine may again return to the top 25 largest global watermelon exporters. Russia, on the other hand, is likely to decrease exports sharply and, for the first time in several years, export less watermelons than Ukraine.

Сообщение Ukraine exported record volumes of watermelons and melons in 2020 появились сначала на EastFruit.

Despite the end of the melon season, prices for watermelons continue to decline in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian Horticultural Association (UHA), over the past week, the “striped berry” has fallen in price by an average of 20%, and today it is delivered in the price range from 1.2 to 3 UAH / kg. Thus, in early September, the prices for watermelons in Ukraine reached their lowest for the season.

The main reason for the decline in prices for watermelons is the seasonal increase in the supply of these berries on the market. The harvesting of late varieties of watermelons in the main regions of production, namely Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, is nearing completion. Producers report that the harvest of the late varieties of watermelons this year almost did not suffer. Accordingly, today the products enter the market without interruption, and the supply of local watermelons in the domestic market is at a reasonably high level.

Thus, at the end of the season, significant price surges are not expected in the watermelon segment. Most manufacturers are convinced that the July situation, when the main supply on the market was made up of imported products, will not be repeated in the segment of late varieties.

However, due to the abnormally cold May and heavy rains in June, producers have lost part of the harvest of early varieties of watermelons. According to preliminary estimates, the decline in the production of early varieties of watermelons reached 50%. Accordingly, due to lack of supply, Ukraine had to import significant amounts of melons and gourds in June. For the first half of 2020, 2.1 thousand tons of melons were imported to Ukraine, with a total value of $ 1.97 million. For comparison, a year earlier, foreign purchases of watermelons and melons were three times lower, both in volume and in value.

Despite the achievement of the minimum price level for the season, currently, watermelons in Ukraine sold on average by 65-70% more expensive than in the same period last year. At the beginning of September 2019, the striped berry was delivered in the range from 0.9 to 1.5 UAH / kg.

Сообщение Over the past week, watermelons in Ukraine fell in price by 20% появились сначала на EastFruit.