Greek watermelon exporters are looking forward to a busy season as demand is rather high at the moment.
Market watchers say the Greek watermelon season is about to kick off. Starting in week 20, the summer fruit will be exported mostly to European countries.
According to Christos Mitrosilis, CEO of Greek fruit exporter Mitrosilis, there is already solid demand for watermelons, while the export is yet to begin: “Our watermelon export will start in week 20, the week of May the 17th.
”We can already see the demand being high at the moment. We feel this is a result of the low quantities of available stone fruit, like peaches nectarines and apricots.”
As Greece has had good weather, the quality benefited this year, Mitrosilis explains: “Greece’s production of watermelons is on a normal level this year, which we’re happy to see. Thanks to good weather, the quality of the watermelons should be good as well.
”With demand already being high and more and more European countries getting a grip on COVID-9, we expect there to be an increased consumption of summer fruits compared to last year.”
In the mean time, the Belgian cooperative, BelOrta is building a new sorting and packaging warehouse that is expected to be ready in September 2022.
The new building will be constructed adjacent to the existing packaging plant that was put to use in 2019.
According to Director Philippe Appeltans, BelOrta is spending €18 million on this facility. It’s being built especially for top fruit.
“We must rely on smart technology. That’s if we want to play at a high level in the fruit and vegetable sector. That technology will allow us to switch faster. We can then also deliver high-quality fruit and vegetables. This construction is an important investment. That’s for the 400 fruit growers who are members of our cooperative.”
There are box and cardboard punnet set-up machines in the 2019 warehouse. “When the new facility is finished, we can bring the packaging to the sorting plant. We can then finish it before it’s transported to our buyers.
”We’re going to install an optical sorting machine. Then, we can guarantee top quality. We can also sort out the slightly damaged or deformed top fruit. Those can go to, say, processing industry clients. So, we’ll limit our residual flows”, explains Kris Jans, BelOrta’s Fruit Division manager.
”The annual sorting capacity will be at 40 million kg of top fruit. That will be in the first phase after the building’s completion. However, that’s not our limit. In time, we hope to scale up to 60 million kg of apples and pears per year.
”For many fruit growers, it’s not feasible to buy sorting and packing machines. That’s why the cooperative’s investing in this project. You must be big to be profitable. As a cooperative, we can guarantee this scale. We hope constructing this new warehouse will ready us for the future”, Kris said.
