Israel’s watermelon growers face unprecedented losses as virus and weather damage spread

Israel’s watermelon industry is suffering unusually severe damage this year, with losses already estimated in the millions of shekels. According to KANAT, the agricultural natural-disaster insurance fund, more than 1,000 dunams of watermelon fields have already been approved for destruction, about 10% of Israel’s total watermelon-growing area.

The harm comes from an uncommon combination of two major problems at once, very poor yields caused by weather damage and a sharp outbreak of a cucurbit virus. KANAT said the trouble began in March, when heavy cloud cover and relatively cold weather damaged pollination and caused a steep drop in yields. The impact was especially severe in warm regions that normally produce the season’s first watermelons, the northern Jordan Valley and the Beit Shean Valley, where May’s early crop was very small.

At the same time, the virus affecting cucurbit crops, including watermelons, has spread far more than usual. It typically appears every year, but this season’s outbreak is estimated at five to six times the annual average. KANAT said climate conditions and viruses’ growing resistance may be contributing factors. The virus does not make the fruit unsafe, but it ruins its texture and taste, leaving watermelons floury, underripe-looking, or sometimes with white flesh or yellow stripes that make them look overripe. That makes them unfit for sale.

Damage is now being reported in fields across the country, including the Jordan Valley, Lower Galilee, and the south, especially the Gaza border area. Farmers are being told to destroy affected fields before harvest, because picking watermelons costs about 2,000 shekels per dunam. If KANAT’s inspectors find enough damage in a sample check, the farmer can receive compensation for destroying the whole field, avoiding harvesting, transport, and later rejection in the market. The marketing season runs from mid-April to August, and KANAT warned that many fields have not yet reached harvest, so the damage could widen into the summer and affect thousands more dunams.