NOTand you don’t take the lead in the melon department anymore! If the pecou takes off, take out savings or oboles to catch it on the fly. The melon will be good. Producer’s word… Its weight can also guide your choice. Already, from the field to the packaging, the round fruit has undergone a selection process. The discarded specimens, between 5% and 20%, go back to the fields in the form of compost, invite themselves into the troughs of the animals, or even feed a methaniser. Examined, packaged, the beautiful gourd is in a hurry to be delivered. But at what cost ?
Every week, melon sellers fear the glitch. This year, the start of the season was juicy. “The weather was favourable, with ten to fifteen days early and deliveries starting in May for the South-East region. Even as Spain was penalized by heavy rains, in the region of Murcia, preventing bees from pollinating flowers”, explains Jérôme Jausseran, president of the Hérault company Force Sud, which brings together four producers cultivating just as well in France as in Morocco or Spain.
Unsurprisingly, the price of melon jumped. It was displayed in the stalls at nearly 5, even 10 euros, the piece during May, before flowing back to 3 euros in June. But when summer arrives, melons crowd the gate, and promotions are aplenty on the shelves. “The melon, like the banana, is a loss leader for mass distribution. It is strategic to attract customers,” emphasizes Mr. Jausseran.
How to lose the compass
The melon is a banana… The brands highlight the beautiful French orange melon at bargain prices in their advertisements. Like Lidl, which offers it at 1.29 euros each. Watch out for upcoming negotiations. “We are victims of the price war. If the melon price is 1 euro in distribution, it is not viable for the sector”, warns the boss of Force Sud. “We have lost 4,000 hectares of production in ten years in France”, he adds.
The melon sector, which claims 400 producers on 12,000 hectares and companies that have structured themselves to market them, has experienced many upheavals. At the end of 2019, the Rouge-Gorge company gave up. The brand was taken over by Force Sud. In November 2021, it was the turn of Soldive to close its historic site, in Thouars, in Deux-Sèvres. Afterwards, it is true, a complicated year, with more than capricious weather and national production falling by 9% to 228,000 tonnes.
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