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Watermelon expected to have successful season, but no reduced prices

Midlands farmers say while they are able to grow a "good" crop, the prices haven't leveled out.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina grew 117 million pounds of watermelon in 2022. Farmers expect to match and even pass that number this year.

A rainy May brought June flowers, watermelon blossoms that is.

“We saw a decent yield from them. Nothing exponential but certainly not a failure for the year as it did in some years for sure. Some years you can totally fail on both. We are proud we had a decent crop for both and more on the way for the fall,” Jason Roland, owner of Organically Roland in Lexington, said.

He says it takes a combination between temperatures and rain to yield success. And failure could be attributed to a phenomenon that is impacting several industries.

“Usually, because of I mean in this day and age you got climate change really affecting everything so badly the weather, and this time we just got lucky, ” Roland said.

Roland says the rain played in his favor this season with a July harvest.

Larry Harris, owner of Harris Farm LLC. in Sumter, said another thing that contributes to a good crop is timing, which is why he’s yielding a later watermelon crop.

“Well, that’s the reason I’m doing a late crop because my land kind of ebbs and flows, has a few spots where it drops down then it climbs back the hill. But we’ve had thunderstorms that last an hour, an hour and a half, and we get 3 inches of rain and that rain just settles you can’t get on to your field,” Harris said.

He says right now he has high expectations for his Labor Day harvest. But a good crop doesn’t necessarily mean lower prices this year. This summer it could mean higher prices as grocery costs continue to rise.

“The producer has to pass that on to someone because if we’re selling it to the markets, they're only going to give us so much. It’s gonna be more than what it was the year before, but it’s not going to be as much as if you’re selling them individually, so you can look for anywhere between 25 to a 35 percent increase,” he said.

He adds farmers also see that price increase when maintaining their land. According to Clemson agriculture college, all 46 counties in South Carolina produce watermelon. It’s the biggest acreage of vegetables grown in the state.

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