Polish farmers diversify crops with watermelon cultivation

Farmers in Poland are increasingly experimenting with watermelon cultivation as a way to diversify crops and respond to changing market conditions.

In the Sandomierz region, Maciej Siekiera from Gałkowic has introduced smaller watermelons, weighing between 1 and 2.5 kg, priced at 8 PLN per piece. This shift from larger varieties is a strategic response to price competition from imports from Turkey and Italy. His initiative, ‘Polskie Pole - Suwerenność na Wyciągnięcie Ręki’, aims to promote direct sales from local producers to consumers to shorten supply chains.

In the Mazovia region near Warka, traditionally an apple-growing area, farmer Artur Jagieliński has also experimented with the Crimson Sweet variety. Following spring frosts that damaged his orchards, Jagieliński used watermelon cultivation as an experiment to test if the fruit could thrive in southern Mazovia. While the harvest was successful in terms of quality and sweetness, finding large-scale buyers for a small local batch proved challenging, leading to self-service sales.