In the farming world, each year presents new challenges and new opportunities. For Leger & Son, the challenges and opportunities this season revolve around a tighter supply of watermelons.

Jordan Carter, director of marketing for the Cordele, GA-based watermelon grower, said warm weather early in the season in south Florida resulted in an early start to watermelon harvest. This will likely cause a supply gap later on in the Florida deal and timing for the rest of the season could be thrown off the typical schedules.

Wada Farms is a family-owned farming operation that is celebrating its 80th year in business in 2023. What began with 160 acres of potatoes has turned into one of America’s largest grower-shippers-marketers of potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes.

In 2016, Wada Farms added watermelons to its mix and what started as a niche program located in North Carolina has now become a strategic alliance of growers/partners in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South and North Carolina, Delaware, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

At the National Watermelon Promotion Board, promotional opportunities at retail include in-store, digital and social media marketing components, providing customer reach for product and nutrition education as an extension to the brick-and-mortar element that is coming back into focus.

Providing accurate and knowledgeable product information is a path to purchase opportunity, according to Juliemar Rosado, director of retail and international marketing at the NWPB.

The National Watermelon Promotion Board has released the findings of a new study, conducted along with research partner Armada Corporate Intelligence Inc., that demonstrates the significant positive impact of the NWPB's activities on the demand for watermelon.

For the past six years, the National Watermelon Association has recognized promising members of the next generation in the watermelon industry at its annual convention through its Future Watermelon Farm Leaders award program.

This year, Bailey Leger of Leger & Son was among the recipients named to Class VII of the program.

“Bailey excels in everything she does because she is dedicated and diligent,” said Jordan Carter, director of marketing at Cordele, GA-based Leger & Son.

ASHEVILLE, NC — The National Watermelon Association kicked off its 108th annual convention, here, on Feb. 22 with an opening reception at the historic Omni Grove Park Inn, overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina. This year’s convention is notable for the retirement of longtime Executive Director Bob Morrissey and National Watermelon Queen Coordinator Eleanore Bullock, and the welcoming of new Executive Director George Szczepanski and National Watermelon Queen Coordinator Kerri Wiggins.