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Organic cantaloupes, honeydews, galias and seedless watermelons have begun to ship from California and Arizona deserts, but will be in relatively short supply until after the 4th of July holiday pull.
“From the 4th of July through August and into September, we should have very good supplies of almost all the melons,” said Max Laughlin of Access Organics Inc., which represents growers in both California’s desert and Central Valley. “Once the guys up north (Westside district of the San Joaquin Valley) get going in July, there will be promotable volume. Retailers should be lining up those promotions now. They are going to be able to get all the melons they need for their ads.”
Access Organics Cantaloupe
Laughlin, who said Access Organics is the largest supplier of organic melons during this late May/June desert deal, said there is a traditional supply gap just prior to the 4th of July, as desert deals winding down at the end of June and before the Westside gets going. “This year we have a new grower in Huron so we might not have much of gap,” he said.
Veg-Fresh Farms LLC, headquartered in Corona, CA, is the exclusive sales agent of Del Bosque Farms, Inc., Los Banos, CA and a major organic melon grower. Dan Kerrigan of has been selling the company’s melons, including their sizable organic deal for more than a dozen years. “I believe Del Bosque is the largest single organic melon grower in California,” he said.
Del Bosque is expected to begin harvest of many different organic melon varieties in early July and remain in the deal through October 10. Kerrigan quickly listed the many different organic varieties, which included multiple types of cantaloupes, honeydews, seedless watermelons and galias.
Del Bosque field ready for organic cantaloupes and watermelon.
“Our specialty is the old western variety cantaloupe which is heavily netted. Almost 100 percent of our cantaloupes are western variety,” he said. “We only plant the newer varieties for the very end of the season in October when the western varieties can’t make a crop.”
The veteran melon salesman believes the western variety is superior in quality and taste. “It’s all about flavor for us,” Kerrigan said. “Our program is driven by flavor.”
He agreed with Access Organic’s Laughlin that there will be plenty of opportunities for promotion of organic melons this summer. In fact, Kerrigan said Del Bosque and Veg-Fresh coordinate very carefully with their retail partners to plant extra volume at the times that the retailers want to promote. He was also complimentary of the other grower-shippers with a California summer organic melon program noting that there are four or five competitors “all of whom do a very good job.”
Kerrigan added that melons are not an easy crop to grow organically as it takes many years to figure out how to do it correctly. Del Bosque Farms planted its first organic melons in 2004.
Laughlin reiterated that the summer months will be an excellent time for retailers to put organic melons on ads. He said not only will the San Joaquin Valley be pumping out top notch quality and supplies for the better part of three months, but there will also be some local organic deals around the country helping to moderate the f.o.b. price.
Both Laughlin and Kerrigan said demand for organic melons is on the rise, but production, at least during the summer months, is keeping up with that growing demand.
