It is estimated that watermelon producers in the region, due to over-planting, low prices and coyote trafficking, lost around 90 thousand pesos per cultivated hectare, which they were unable to sell due to these problems in the market.
According to Marcos Portillo, a local producer, he was able to recover only 15 percent of what he invested in 30 hectares of watermelon, noting that this was due to market saturation, losing around 3 million pesos invested in planting this fruit.
“Not even 15 percent of what should have been raised was harvested, the rest is a total loss, the market and the offer were saturated, commented Portillo, adding that he had an expense of more than 85 thousand pesos per hectare, so the low price seems to them, “an insult, it is very expensive to plant watermelon and melon, with tape, a sheet, water, soil, cleaning work, seed, it costs more than 80 thousand pesos to put just one hectare into production.”
Likewise, the farmer explained that most of the producers of this fruit have been losing their harvest, because it cannot be sold on time or because it is affected by the weather, with the dust storms that have passed through the region in recent months.
In his particular case, he said that his production had a loss of more than 85 percent, losing around 3 million pesos or 100 thousand pesos per hectare, which exceeds the cost of production invested in the surface with which he worked to get his harvest this year, achieving a minimal recovery.
According to the calculations made with the information provided by Marco Portillo, he had an approximate loss of 2.5 million pesos, while the rest of the farmers continue receiving low prices when purchasing their product.
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