The inflationary spiral feeds on the star fruits of summer: the price of watermelon and melon skyrockets

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"If tonight I won the lottery, tomorrow I would put gasoline in the car and buy a watermelon on the way back."

Who has not received this cartoonish meme on their WhatsApp -or other similar ones- in recent times, or has found it on their social networks, where the queen fruit of summer has been described as if it were an authentic product? luxury it was.

Use the hyperbole to warn about the complex situation in the sector because the reality, yes, is that consumers have been surprised by its price on the shelves for a popular, quality product, but at a cost that is always affordable for all pockets when greater demand produces: with the arrival of high temperatures.

However, in recent weeks

in large stores, which represent 70% of total sales in Spain

The crazy inflation suffered by the shopping basket together with a very adverse weather in spring, which ruined the first crops in Almería and Murcia, have caused the disbelief of the consumer, who saw astonished how a complete watermelon (between six and seven kilos)

.

The situation has come to such an extent that some purchasing habits have changed.

Certain consumers, for economic reasons, "instead of taking a watermelon or a melon, they replaced them with a piece of apple," says José Ugarrio, a technician in the Asaja fruit sector.

Or they looked for another alternative, that of not acquiring an entire unit and taking "half a watermelon or a quarter of a melon."

“

, although in recent days they are finally starting to adjust”, after paying almost three times more than last summer.

The reasons?

56 kilometers south of Madrid is Villaconejos (3,463 inhabitants), a town that, among other things, is known for the large number of melons that grow on its land.

In them, José Carlos Velasco -58 years old- has been dedicating himself to this crop since he was 16, when he accompanied his father in the agricultural tasks.

Now, he is in charge of a total of 39 hectares if those of his other farm are added, in Corral de Almaguer (Toledo).

Last year he invested around 5,000 euros in each hectare of melon.

Much more in watermelon, "

".

Those expenses are already obsolete.

Currently, due to inflation, the farmer has to face about 13,000 euros per hectare: "If I had known at the beginning of the year I would not even have planted, because to see later how they remain lying on the ground at not worth selling...

And he adds: "

" after seeing how other colleagues have been "throwing in the towel" in recent times.

Although in the balance of the accounts the result depends to a large percentage on the weather of each campaign, «the productive yield usually ranges on average between 35,000 and 50,000 kilograms per hectare.

And if the campaign turns out splendid - which is not the case this year - "the figure could rise to 80,000 for watermelons."

This past Sunday -there are no holidays in the field- José Carlos Velasco was already at work since four in the morning: «I left him that day at 9 at night because he had a family dinner...».

That is to say, a lot of hours in a row and that has the support of eight workers permanently (he also owns olive groves, produces oil, organic olives, grapes, corn or cereals) and at the time of greatest harvest he hires up to 30 employees.

This year he will think about it.

The irrigation installed on his farm -which contains "modern and effective systems so as not to lose a single drop of water"- works at full capacity at this time since the watermelon needs a lot of water.

«

», She laments.

Last summer, at the end of the campaign, with a lot of unharvested production, "they gave us 4 or 5 cents as alms", confesses the president of Independent Farmers and Ranchers of Madrid (AGIM-COAG).

Prices

The production cost price of melon and watermelon has increased by an average of 30% this campaign, according to calculations by the Castilla La Mancha Interprofessional.

Thus, growing a kilo of melon was worth between 0.26 and 0.28 euros last year, and a kilo of watermelon between 0.18 and 0.20 euros.

This summer they have cost between 0.34 and 0.36 euros and from 0.23 to 0.25 euros, respectively.

The amounts are practically similar throughout Spain.

COAG has just published the price index of origin and destination of food in Spain for June.

On average, each farmer was paid 0.36 euros for each kilo of watermelon, but the price on the shelves was 2.17 euros, which represents

.

For the same amount, a melon producer received 0.47 euros but the consumer paid an average of 1.87 euros, that is, almost 300% more.

"The Food Chain Law [approved in this legislature] is not serving any purpose, it is not obtaining results," criticizes Ugarrio.

Another of the agrarian organizations, the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA), considers that “behind this increase in prices at destination, without reflection at origin, there are speculative movements that seek to enrich themselves by taking advantage of the inflationary spiral and

».

For this reason, they demand the Government and the autonomous communities to reinforce the controls to avoid "abuses".

The head of the melon and watermelon interprofessional of Asaja, Cristóbal Jiménez, points to this year's "atypical" weather campaign, with a spring with a wide incidence of rain, cold and the occasional storm that liquidated those first productions in Almería (in greenhouses, where cultivation begins first) and in the Region of Murcia.

"It had to be reseeded and

in March and early April, so there was less supply on the market and prices went up," he explains.

This expert denounces what they consider to be an "orchestrated" smear campaign against these fruits that has been flooding the internet for almost a month.

"The decrease in prices is sought to the detriment of the producer," he warns.

In this way, he advocates that «all the links in the chain must have their commercial margins, but not at the expense of the producer;

the problem is that everyone makes a killing as soon as they can », and he recalls that« last campaign there were losses of 4,000 euros per hectare, and this cannot be repeated because it would be the ruin of the sector ».

Jiménez focuses on the great link in the chain, that of marketing, which collects the product at the foot of the field from the farmer and, after a washing process in some cases and, above all, labeling in boxes, transports it to the door of shopping malls.

In any case, he points out that the high prices are "one

" and have already been falling in recent days, which is why he flatly denies that watermelon and melon are similar to gourmet products.

"It would be missing more."

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