Virus outbreak damages Israel's watermelon crop, affecting taste and texture

A rare outbreak of a squash family virus has already hit about 20% of Israel’s watermelon growing area, the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Natural Disaster Fund in Agriculture, known as KANT, said on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. The fund has so far approved the destruction of more than 1,000 dunams of watermelons, about 10% of the country’s total watermelon acreage, as growers face losses estimated in the millions of shekels.

The damage is being driven by a combination of severe weather and the virus. In March, cloudiness and cold hurt fruit development and sharply reduced yields in hotter areas such as the northern Jordan Valley and the Beit She’an Valley. At the same time, this year’s virus spread at five or six times the usual annual rate.

KANT said the virus changes the fruit’s quality, making watermelons mealy, underdeveloped-looking, and sometimes marked by a white center or yellow stripes. The fund stressed that the problem affects only taste and texture, not public health, but it makes the fruit unfit for sale.

Damage has also been reported in the Jordan Valley, the Lower Galilee, and communities near the Gaza border. To avoid sending bad produce to market and to spare farmers the cost of harvesting unusable fruit, KANT is authorizing field destruction before picking. Harvesting costs are estimated at about 2,000 shekels per dunam, and the season is expected to continue through August. KANT warned, “We still do not see the end,” saying the losses could spread to thousands of additional dunams as harvest time approaches.