For Georgia farmers who have struggled to grow melons in the
midst of a hard, lingering
drought, nature has added insult to injury.

In a normal year, the demand for watermelons goes up
throughout the late spring and
early summer, peaking during the Fourth of July holiday.

In a normal year.

This year, though, the winter and spring were unusually warm.
In fact, the watermelons in Georgia grew so fast in the balmy
weather that they, in effect, caught up with their cousins in
Florida.

The resulting oversupply is giving shoppers some bargain
melons and farmers some
marketing headaches, said Darbie Granberry, an Extension Service
horticulturist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.

Bargain
Watermelons

“I think you’ll really see a bargain on
watermelons,” Granberry said.
Unfortunately for the grower, the price is down nearly to the
break-even point — in some
cases, even lower.

Florida-grown watermelons usually hit the market first,
followed by those grown in
Georgia. But this year the Florida-grown and Georgia-grown
melons
hit the market at about
the same time.

Granberry said growers’ costs this year were unusually high,
with the drought forcing
extra irrigation and high oil prices pushing up fuel costs. The
depressed prices further
burden the already hard-hit growers.

Little Left for
Farmers

Coy Tawzer, who farms in Tift County, said he has little left
after paying harvesting
and shipping costs on his 50-acre watermelon crop.

“We actually get 2 cents for these watermelons, 2 cents a
pound,” Tawzer
said. “It’s sickening to have to sell them for this. But we
can’t just walk away from
them. We have to load them for whatever the market price
is.”

The bad year could force Tawzer out of the business.
“Well, right now it’s real
doubtful that we’ll grow any (next year),” he said.

Georgia farmers grow about 38,000 acres of watermelons. In a
typical year, the crop
contributes $40 million to the state’s economy.