In other words, in less than a week—according to EastFruit’s price monitoring—the wholesale price of watermelons in Moldova fell from the highest to the lowest level recorded for the start of the last ten-day period of July in the past five years. Meanwhile, prices in Ukraine are even lower.
Operators in Moldova’s fruit market attribute the sharp drop in watermelon prices to their mass ripening in many traditional watermelon-growing regions and, consequently, to a rapid increase in the supply of this product on the local market. A similar situation is observed in the Ukrainian market. Last year, in early July, there was a brief period when watermelons from Moldova were shipped to Ukraine’s border regions. For a time, this factor kept the price of Moldovan watermelons at a relatively high level. This year, there are no exports—nor are any expected—and the domestic market is already oversupplied.
Another factor putting pressure on prices is the increase in watermelon plantation area this year compared to last year by approximately 15–20%. According to expert estimates, watermelon plantations in Moldova cover 2,000–2,500 hectares this year.
