As opposed to the loss in summer consumption, winter import Piel de Sapo melons have been experiencing their own revolution on the supermarket shelves over the past seven years.
Around 2,500 hectares are cultivated by Spanish operators in Brazil and Senegal. This production is consumed from December to March or April. According to Maestre, this area produces approximately 80,000,000 kilos.
With this in mind, a differentiation should be made between summer melon consumption, which has a stable demand (8.4 kilos per capita), and winter consumption, which in a very short time has reached 2 kilos per capita.
“It is true that summer melon consumption has stalled, but a new market niche has been opened up with Piel de Sapo imports during the winter,” one of the most important importers from the sector explains.
Regarding the idea that watermelons could have the same evolution, Maestre explains that “watermelons are deep-rooted as summer consumption because they are very refreshing and their genetics do not travel as well as melons. However, this does not mean that in the future a similar occurrence to that of melon imports could happen.”
