Aftermath of Pesticide Contamination : Consumers Shun Melons to the Dismay of Growers
Consumers across the nation are apparently shunning watermelons, a traditional summer treat, in the wake of the discovery two weeks ago that some California melons were contaminated by the pesticide aldicarb, which is not authorized for use by growers of the fruit.
Supermarkets, which last year at this time promoted watermelons as “loss leaders” to attract customers, are instead favoring peaches, blueberries, nectarines, even other kinds of melon--to the chagrin of watermelon growers across the nation.
“We need the message to get out that these watermelons are safe,” San Joaquin Valley grower John Scarrone said.
Jim Zaferis, who with his father runs United Melon, a major Los Angeles distributor, said grower prices remain about the same as last year at this time but demand is lagging severely. “It’s supply and demand,” he explained, “and the demand’s not there.”
Despite the fact that state agricultural officials are inspecting watermelons in the field and labeling uncontaminated fruit for market, retail sales are off 75% by volume from 1984, Zaferis said. No specific figures have yet been compiled, however, though the state Department of Food and Agriculture is preparing a loss estimate.
Harmon Lawson, secretary-treasurer of the National Watermelon Assn., estimated the retail value of the nation’s crop at about $400 million.
Because stocks of retailers and wholesalers were destroyed after some contaminated melons were found, demand initially picked up as markets rebuilt inventories, Zaferis said. “But once the pipeline was filled,” he said, “that was it.”
Public perception focused on the massive destruction of fruit, Zaferis said, “despite the fact that 99.999% of all the destroyed watermelons were good. . . . We’re just hoping we can romance the customer back.”
That view found echoes on the East Coast.
Said Bill Ward, president of Growers Marketing Service, a major Southeastern shipper based in Lakeland, Fla.: “We’re trying to ship. We need to ship. But the customers are not buying. Shipments are pitifully small right now.
“We need somebody to tell the people in the remainder of the United States--particularly from Chicago east--that the tainted watermelon problem was a local California problem and had nothing to do with watermelons being shipped out of the South,” Ward said.
Shipments of watermelons out of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Mississippi, Missouri and Virginia totaled just 250 loads Wednesday, each load containing 450,000 melons, Ward said. “We ship more than that out of just the southern part of Florida in one day at the end of April,” he said, and April is very early in the harvest. “There’s no volume.”
Southeastern prices paid to growers range from a low of about 2.5 cents a pound in Georgia to about 4 cents in Virginia, compared to a normal price of about 6 cents a pound, Ward said.
In California, the Federal State Market News Service reported that prices to growers are running from 3.5 cents to 4 cents a pound, about what it was last year after the July Fourth peak of about 8 cents. “The pricing doesn’t seem that much out of line, compared to previous years,” said Arthur Verissimo of the reporting service.
California field prices in early June ranged from 5 cents to 6 cents a pound, Verissimo said, held at 6 cents at the end of June, rose to 7 cents to 8 cents on July 3, retreated modestly to 6 cents to 7 cents on July 12 but have been slipping since.
There are some indications that consumer interest may be returning, said Herbert Lawson of the National Watermelon Assn. Demand was firming Thursday, he said, leading him to predict that the remainder of the season would approach normality.
Clyde Ware, president of C&C; Enterprises, a major shipper-broker based in Prattsville, Ala., said his shipments began picking up Wednesday afternoon. For about a week, though, volume fell to about a fourth of last year’s level, he said.
Alabama’s watermelon scare last weekend apparently ended Thursday, he added, after agricultural experts concluded that a lone contaminated melon was likely “a plant--somebody’s idea of a joke.”
For California growers, whose watermelon production is the nation’s third largest after Texas and Florida, the damage has already been done, said Mike Stuart, vice president of Irvine-based Western Growers Assn.
“The industry appeared likely to make money this year after two or three years that were not too hot,” Stuart explained. “But this situation has just completely pulled the rug out.”
Growers could make out at current prices, he added, but not at current volumes. “Without volume, you’re just dead in the water.” California watermelons were recalled in 10 states and western Canada after consumers of the fruit began to fall ill during the July Fourth holiday, the traditional peak period of watermelon consumption. No one has died in the outbreak, but health officers estimate that as many as 280 people were stricken by aldicarb poisoning after eating California watermelons.
Times staff writer Bob Baker contributed to this article.
