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The production of melons in Brazil is more than enough
for supplying the domestic market. Now, practically half of
the production is destined for export, while the other half is
consumed by the Brazilian people. In the past crop year, ac-
cording to the president of the Brazilian Fruit Growers and
Exporters Association (Abrafrutas), Luiz Roberto Barcelos,
250 thousand tons of melons were shipped abroad, raking
in US$ 210 million. “These numbers show that the lemon is
the second most exported fruit by Brazil in value, but is the
first in volume”, he ponders.
About 80% of the exports are destined for the Europe-
an Community, more precisely to the United Kingdom, Hol-
land and Spain. The expectation is, as new markets are
opened for Brazilian melons, the supply chain will make ad-
ditional strides in production. For 2017, taking into consid-
eration only the markets where the sector operates, pro-
jections point to a five-percent growth in order to meet the
organic expansion of the demand at home and abroad.
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Celebrating surpluses
The crop occupies 20 thousand hectares
and reaches 500 thousand tons
On the other hand, a big number of
conquests are celebrated by producers
and exporters. The first of them is the
opening of new markets for exports, like
Argentina, Chile, Japan and Vietnam.
Shipments to China should soon become
a reality. The expansion of area free of An-
astrepha Grandis, the only quarantine
pest of the melon, is equally commemo-
rated. This zone, monitored by Coex and
internationally acknowledged, used to
surface only in some municipalities.
The official has it that another rele-
vant conquest is the register of several
pesticides in the National Sanitary Sur-
veillance Agency (Anvisa), of the Ministry
of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Sup-
ply (Mapa) and of the Brazilian Institute
of the Environment and Renewable Nat-
ural Resources (Ibama). “With these reg-
isters, new pesticides, more modern, less
toxic and more selective, can be used by
the farmers, ensuring higher productivity,
smaller cost and healthier fruit”.
Sílvio Ávila
