Keith Connell offers Yuma watermelons this summer
Keith Connell offers Yuma watermelons this summer
For a successful season, watermelon growers need to be in the market for the summer holidays, according to Mike Meyer, watermelon salesman for Keith Connell, Inc., in Stillwell, KS. “If you’re late or don’t hit peak demand, it really messes you up,” he said.
This spring, as usual, Keith Connell is planning to be in the market for the coming Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays.
In the early spring, Keith Connell’s Nogales office was shipping seedless watermelons. Meyer said he will predominantly stay with the Nogales deal until it ends. This certainly includes Memorial Day offerings.
Meyer said it is highly predictable that growers will want 22 cents per pound around the Memorial Day holiday, while buyers expect to buy watermelons for 15 cents. Inevitably, the Memorial Day market winds up in the 18-22 cent range. He added, “One way or another, it gets there.”
The watermelon market in early April was low due to slow pull from the Midwest and East Coast because of lingering, unseasonably cold weather. He expects a fast price recovery when the huge populations of those regions can finally enjoy warm weather.
In a new twist this summer, Keith Connell is marketing melons grown in Yuma, AZ. Meyer said those melons will come into the market about June 10 and will certainly be available to sell to West Coast customers for Independence Day.
When Nogales finishes watermelons, Keith Connell will be shipping for growers in North Florida and Georgia, who should be in the July 4 market.
Texas watermelon growers in the Rio Grande Valley have been running late from wet and cool weather. Many of those South Texas growers expect to miss the Memorial Day holiday, Meyer said. Keith Connell will handle only minor volumes of South Texas watermelons.
Keith Connell is involved in growing 600 acres of watermelons in Southeast Missouri. That fruit may be in the market as early as late June. It should definitely be in the market for the week of the July 4 holiday. The Missouri melon planting will be finished by late-April, Meyer said on April 7.
Meyer said 90 to 95 percent of his watermelon volume is the self-pollinating seedless variety. He can provide seeded watermelons if customers ask. He noted that certain consumers in the Deep South want seeded watermelons. Thus, his Southeast Missouri crop has more seeded watermelons than most in order to serve that clientele.
“You can’t give them away to a chain in the Midwest,” he noted.
