Weslaco, Texas
June 19, 2003
Lower Rio Grande Valley onion and
melon farmers were not able to cash in on what should have been
one of their most profitable seasons in years. Instead, many
just broke even. Disappointing yields due
to cold snaps, heavy rains and hail are being blamed.
"Onion prices were the highest
since the ‘70s and watermelon prices were the highest in the
last five years, but growers just weren't able to take advantage
because yields were down one-third to a half of what they
normally are," said Dr. Juan Anciso, vegetable specialist at the
Texas A&M University System
Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco.
"Cantaloupe yields were also down."
A lack of competition from
Mexican cantaloupes kept market prices high early in the season,
but then prices dropped considerably when California cantaloupes
overwhelmed the market.
Without special Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) sanitation inspections, Mexican cantaloupes
were banned from coming into the United States this year because
of salmonella contamination problems last year in melons
consumed in the Midwest that were traced to Mexico.
"What's surprising," said Anciso,
"is that cantaloupe prices in Mexico went through the roof this
season. They were selling wholesale for $24 for a box of 15.
That's unheard of. We suspect that because Mexican growers knew
they wouldn't be exporting to the U.S., they didn't plant as
much acreage as they normally do. Or, they could have had
weather problems too.
We just don't know. Some Mexican
growers did meet the FDA requirements to export to the U.S., but
they chose to sell in Mexico where prices were higher."
Cantaloupe prices here early in
the now-completed harvest were in the $9 to $11 range per
40-pound box, but then dropped to an average of $6. Valley
growers did not sell their fruit to Mexico, Anciso said,
probably because of their unfamiliarity with the Mexican market.
Lower than normal cantaloupe
yields were blamed on fruit set damaged by cold temperatures and
hail damage to crops in March. Based on similarly low-yielding
watermelon acreage, a cold snap in early March that brought
temperatures down to 36 degrees did more damage to that crop
than originally thought, Anciso said.
"The weather at planting was
great, but then when the plants were setting flowers, the cold
snap hit. We thought that since it didn't freeze we were OK, but
apparently it did do damage to the fruit set because watermelon
yields just weren't there," he said.
Wholesale watermelon prices this
season averaged 16 cents per pound for seedless watermelon and
10 cents per pound for seeded. Prices normally average 9 cents
for seedless and 6 cents for seeded watermelon.
Onions planted in October were
hit by heavy rains that washed away seeds and rotted emerging
seedlings, also reducing yields. Growers were not able to fully
cash in on extremely high onion prices of $16 to $24 per
50-pound bag. Prices are normally in the $6 range.
Duane McDaniel, who farms between
McAllen and Hidalgo just off 10th Street, said cold nighttime
temperatures and high winds early in the season reduced fruit
set in his watermelon and cantaloupe fields, keeping yields low.
"We're probably off one-third in
yields," he said. "And the price decline mid-way through the
season meant we left a lot of cantaloupes (unharvested) in the
field."
McDaniel, who planted 100 acres
of watermelon and 70 acres of cantaloupe this season, said he
would finish harvesting his watermelons in a week to 10 days.
Preliminary figures from the
South Texas Onion and Melon Committee in Mission show Valley
farmers sold almost 3 million 50-pound bags of onions grown on
approximately 8,300 acres, or 347 bags per acre. Average
production here is 480 bags per acre.
Almost 1.3 million 40-pound boxes
of cantaloupes were sold from 3,800 acres, for an average of 334
boxes per acre. Average is 450 boxes per acre. Totals for
watermelon production are not compiled.
Onions, cantaloupes and
watermelons make up a significant portion of the Valley's entire
fruit and vegetable production, valued at almost $178 million in
2002. Fruits and vegetables make up 41 percent of the total
Valley agricultural production valued at almost half a billion
dollars annually and creating more than 18,500 full-time jobs.
Writer: Rod Santa Ana III,
956-968-5581,
r-santaana@tamu.edu
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