Market Farming

["Kevin Ancell" <kancell AT goodearthgardens.com>]

Georgia Watermelon Prices Low Ahead of Independence Day

Thursday, June 21, 2001



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CORDELE, Ga.  - In this town that bills itself as the ``Watermelon Capital
of the World,'' everything is riding on the crop sold in anticipation of
Fourth of July picnics.


But a glut of melons has kept prices at a low 5 cents a pound, and Georgia
growers are putting the blame on Florida.

Georgia farmers say Florida melons should be off the market by the time the
local crop is ready, but for the last three years the crops have overlapped
because of weather quirks. That means Florida farmers get higher prices
early in the season, while Georgia growers are forced to sell around the
break-even price when melons from both states are available.

And Georgia growers say those selling Florida melons in Cordele are
``pinhooking'' - paying a small fee to Florida growers to harvest and sell
their late-maturing, leftover melons, which are often of poor quality.

``It's not all substandard. But a lot of times you're ... not picking the
prime stuff,'' said Terry Kelley, a University of Georgia watermelon
specialist. ``It brings the price down on everything.''

The market in Cordele, a town of 11,000 located 200 miles south of Atlanta,
is the East Coast's largest watermelon supplier. Georgia's $73 million crop
provides growers with a cash infusion in the months before they harvest
cotton, peanuts and other row crops.

Officially, Georgia is in its fourth summer of drought, but heavy rains and
the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison have damaged some melon fields.
Excessive moisture gives melons a bland taste and can kill them.

Every year, Cordele celebrates its status as a watermelon mecca. This year's
watermelon festival, running Saturday through July 14, features a beauty
pageant, seed-spitting event and watermelon-eating contest.

Farmers haul the green-and-yellow ovoids to the market in sagging pickup
trucks and wagons. They park beneath metal sheds and often wait for hours -
sometimes even all night - until they negotiate a sale.

``I'll be here until I get rid of them. Then I'll go back and cut some
more,'' said Helen Satterfield of nearby Pitts, who waited with a pickup and
two wagonloads. ``It's really hard when you can't get rid of them and it
seems to get worse every year.''








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