Texas cantaloupe and honeydew producers are expecting a good year this year after three or four seasons of low prices.

Their optimism may be well founded considering that acreage has taken a substantial cut in the past two years.

John McClung of the Texas Produce Association revealed that Texas producers have put only 1,677 acres of cantaloupes and 687 acres of honeydews in the ground, according to the official acreage figures for 2005. As a point of comparison, Texas grew more than 4,250 acres of cantaloupes in 2003 and almost 1,700 acres of cantaloupes. In 2004, cantaloupe acreage dropped about 18 percent to fewer than 3,500 acres. This year, the decrease represents more than a 50 percent decline.

The story for honeydews is similar, but those growers saw even sharper declines. From 2003 to 2004, the acreage dropped almost 24 percent, and this year the acreage decline was again about 50 percent.

Mr. McClung said that it is not increased production from Mexico that is the culprit but rather Central American imports that have driven prices down and Texas producers out of the business.

Mike Martin of Rio Queen Inc. in Mission, TX - which owns and operates longtime melon producer Elmore & Stahl Inc. in Pharr, TX, as well as Rio Queen Citrus Inc. and Interstate Fruit & Vegetable Co. Inc. in Donna, TX - said that the firm shifted much of its melon acreage this year into other crops. "We have gotten out of the cantaloupe deal, though we still do have some honeydews. It might actually be a good cantaloupe deal this year" because of the decreased acreage, he said. "It hasn't been a good deal the last few years," he added, explaining why the company pulled its acreage this year. "The marketing window just got too small to the point where it didn't even exist. We were spending $1 million a year on cantaloupes and decided to spend that investment elsewhere."

Rio Queen expanded its onion acreage this year and also added some new fall vegetable acreage. Looking ahead, Mr. Martin does not expect the firm to get back into the cantaloupe business. "Unless something drastically changes - and I don't see that happening - we are out of the cantaloupe business for good."

He explained that "drastic changes" would have to include a new cantaloupe variety that would expand the Texas season as well as a major reduction in acreage from competing areas such as Central America - two things that are also very unlikely.

In fact, the United States is currently negotiating the Central American Free Trade Agreement which will probably have the effect of increasing production from those countries, which include both Guatemala and Nicaragua. Experts have said that for most fresh crops - including melons - the free trade agreement will not have that great of an impact because most of those items already come into the United States duty free as a result of the Caribbean Initiative negotiated in the 1990s.

Mr. McClung acknowledged this but said that news of the free trade agreement still rubs these Texas producers the wrong way. In the face of this competition, which many believe is unfair because they say that producers in those countries don't have to play by the same rules, it is difficult to accept anything that opens the market even further to those producers. Some argue that the new free trade agreement will open those countries for some U.S. exports as the duties disappear on U.S. crops going south.

Theoretically that may be the case, but the duties will generally be phased out over a five- to 15-year period, and Central America is not expected to be a major or even a minor importer of most crops. It may help some apple shipments, but it is not going to be a shot in the arm for Texas producers.

Still, the Central American Free Trade Agreement is causing some consternation in Washington as sugar pproducers, among others, are raising a stink. But unlike fresh produce, sugar from some of the countries involved - most notably the Dominican Republic - does have a duty, which will be wiped out if CAFTA passes and is signed into law.

But back to melons. Some believe 2005 could produce some good cantaloupe prices for the relatively few acres still produced in Texas. Melinda Goodman of Four Seasons Trading Co. in Donna, TX, said that her company has kept its cantaloupe acreage at about the same level this year while others have cut back substantially. "We are getting a lot of calls [from buyers] asking if we have cantaloupe," she said. "We think it is going to be pretty good year."

Ms. Goodman said that as is the case with most crops, Texas cantaloupe are trying to find the right level at which to compete. "There is always going to be a melon industry in Texas," she said. "The question is what is the right level."

With acreage cut in half from last year, Four Seasons anticipated that this year's level of production will prove profitable. "Oftentimes, the cantaloupe market follows the honeydew market, and there has been a strong market for honeydews, so we are hopeful," said Ms. Goodman.

Like others, Ms. Goodman, who promoted melons last year in her position as chief executive officer of TexaSweet, said that the strong competition from Central America has limited the opportunity for Texas producers. "Central America has done a good job on melons," she said.

But Ms. Goodman was quick to point out that global sourcing is also a very important factor in the Texas produce industry as product produced outside the state, but sold by Texas shippers, has become increasingly important - including the Mexican honeydew crop.

Texas melons began shipments after the midway point in April, led by the honeydew crop. Texas cantaloupes should hit the market in early May. The season typically concludes by early June.

All of the acreage cited earlier in this story is that which is grown in the Rio Grande Valley as well as the Winter Garden and Laredo areas.

Those production areas are under the auspices of a federal marketing order dealing with melons and governed by the South Texas Melon Committee. Mr. McClung of the Texas Produce Association said that there may be some other acreage not governed by the order, but such areas are few and far between.

(A full report on Texas onions, melons and tropicals appears in the April 25 issue of The Produce News.)