In recent years we have witnessed various trends in the consumption of vegetables and fruits.
One of the most notable trends is in the watermelon category.
Not inconvenient anymore
Watermelon was long perceived as inconvenient. Especially with decreasing households, watermelons were found too big, giving too much waste and too heavy to carry. Also the lack of good taste and quality was a reason for people to buy other fruits. With the introduction of the high quality, high tasting seedless mini and midi watermelons, consumption is increasing rapidly, in some countries over 10% in the last 5 years. Watermelons are used as a healthy snack, during dinner or lunch or as refreshing drink.
3rd choice of consumers
Watermelon is gaining popularity worldwide staying in the top 5 of fresh consumed fruits globally. In the European Union watermelon is the 3rd choice of consumers as refreshment after apples and oranges. In USA watermelon is 3rd choice after bananas and apples. With the COVID pandemic people started to focus even more on health. Another push forward for watermelon consumption.
Yearround offering
Hazera’s global experience in the watermelon industry provides solutions that fit the needs of all partners in the fresh chain now and in the future through close collaboration. Due to our intensive breeding efforts we are able to offer year round, high quality, high tasting watermelons.
New launches in Spain
Hazera launched 3 new seedless watermelon varieties in Murcia, Spain targeted for the South European watermelon producers:
• Margay, a uniform, crunchy, great tasting midi watermelon with great feedback from Spanish retailers targeting 2 categories at the same time: fresh cut & fresh.
In the mini seedless category 2 novelties were highlighted for the Spanish production:
• 50037 a mini of 1.3-2.1 kg featuring excellent crunch and taste which was very well appreciated by retailers.
• Latest newcomer 50041 a nice, red round watermelon with excellent shelf life capacity is showing good results in both indoor in Almeria as well as the open field in Murcia.
Looking for more insights? Or curious on the solutions we can offer?
Contact us. We are happy to meet.
Mark van der Zouwen
Cucurbits Global Product Manager
Mark.van.der.zouwen@hazera.com
Arjan van Steekelenburg
Chain Manager Fresh Produce
Arjan.van.steekelenburg@hazera.com
Yoav Levy
Cucurbits Regional Product Manager
Yoav.levy@hazera.com
