Melon

The Almerian melon is a whole family rather than one fruit. The Andalusian Observatory credits it, for the 2024/2025 season, with 2,133 hectares and some 92,000 tonnes: the province's seventh protected crop by area, volume and value. The under-plastic campaign starts in April with galia and cantaloupe, and May concentrates the bulk of sales — close to two thirds of the volume.

Each type has its own silhouette. The galia is round, its densely netted skin turning from green to orange-yellow as it ripens, with white to faintly greenish flesh; the amarillo is oval, smooth and unwritten; the piel de sapo, elongated and mottled green, hides crisp, sweet white flesh; the cantaloupe, round or elliptical and ribbed, is the orange-fleshed one; and the blanco, pale-fleshed, completes the fruit-stall quintet. Fashions pass through the greenhouse too: the galia, for years the most planted, is giving ground to the amarillo and the piel de sapo.

The destination remains European: in 2024/2025 exports equalled 58% of the volume produced at origin, 86% of it bound for the European Union — Germany alone took 33% of the exported volume.