Watermelon Sales Plummet in Morocco Despite Price Drop, Sellers Struggle

Currently, "the price of a watermelon varies between 100 and 150 dirhams," but consumers are not stocking up, complains Najib, a seller at the Casablanca wholesale market. In a statement to the Madar21 website, he explained that this price remains high for low-income households. "There are people who earn a daily wage of 100 dirhams, and cannot afford to buy a watermelon at 70 or 100 dirhams that may not even be sweet," he comments.

According to Najib, the adverse effects of the drought on production in the Agadir and Chichaoua regions, as well as the poor quality of the seeds used during the current agricultural season, justify the rise in watermelon prices. The seller also recalled that prices have fallen in recent days, from 6 dirhams per kilogram to 2 or 3 dirhams at the wholesale market. Despite this drop, demand has plummeted in recent weeks, he lamented.

This trend, he attributes to the arrival on the market of other summer fruits such as peaches, nectarines, and grapes. "Buying a watermelon for 70 or 100 dirhams is not the same as buying two kilograms of grapes for 25 dirhams," added Najib, hoping for better weather conditions next season. "Without rain, there will be no harvest".

Omar, another seller at the Casablanca wholesale market, confirmed the drop in watermelon prices which "currently vary between 3 and 3.5 dirhams at the wholesale market, in addition to the available quality," and between 4 and 5 dirhams at retail. Another seller, Youssef, for his part, stressed that demand for watermelon has decreased despite the drop in prices, explaining this fact by the recent rains that have hit several cities in the kingdom and the rise in watermelon prices at the beginning of the year.