Californian grower Van Groningen & Sons has responded to growing demand in the U.S. with its first organic melon harvest set to take place this May.

Marketing and sales manager Ryan Van Groningen told www.freshfruitportal.com the company would be selling organic seedless watermelons, mini personal size watermelons and a range of sweet melons through the spring and summer.

"People are looking for something new, something different, something better and I think that these melons at certain times of the year definitely offer that," Van Groningen said.

Jesse Leyva, grower relations / quality assurance for Van Groningen & Sons, inspects a newly planted block of organic seedless watermelon in El Centro, CA.

"It’s still going to be 5% or less of our total volume. A few years ago when people said organic melons it wasn’t an item. Now it’s starting to come over...[there's] a lot of room for growth.

"With our experience I would doubt that there will be too much of a difference - the quality should be very similar and the shelf life should be very similar to conventionally grown watermelons."

On the topic of availability and consistency, Van Groningen described the current organic melon market as "hit and miss".

"I think a lot of buyers have a tough time finding this product consistently and we wanted to make sure that everybody knew that we will be having the product."

A range of sweet melon varieties will also be included in the range, including orange flesh honeydew, galia, hami and canary melons.

These cultivars are becoming more popular now as they are a sweeter and consumers are looking for something different, but they do have a shorter shelf life.

The company will target the U.S. domestic market with the new range, as it has not received much interest yet from its Japanese import partners for the sweet or organic melons.

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www.freshfruitportal.com