The melon season is in full swing, the campaign has started

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 07. 30. 11:57

This year, a national campaign aimed at promoting one of the most popular fruits of the summer, the Hungarian melon, has been launched, which will take place between July 23 and August 2, 2025. The program, which runs with the slogan “Summer, melon, my slice”, aims to draw attention to the excellent quality and diverse usability of Hungarian cantaloupe and yellow melon, as well as the fact that the season lasts until the end of September. The Agricultural Marketing Center has been encouraging the consumption of seasonal fruits for years, and in the coming period, tasting stands will be set up in many parts of the country, where interested parties can taste the juicy and delicious Hungarian melon.

Markets are the most diverse sources of supply for seasonal vegetables and fruits, and it is no coincidence that this time the opening of the melon consumption promotion campaign was hosted by one of the popular market halls in Budapest.

Imre Hubai, the State Secretary for Agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture, said at the press conference: as a result of breeding, more and more consumer-friendly varieties exist, and smaller melon varieties weighing 6 to 8 kilos have come to the fore. “Seedless” and mini melons have become fashionable. Seedless melons are only in name, we can rather call them seedless. This category is also becoming more popular with producers, and we are already exporting some of them. Currently, more than 1,300 people in the country grow watermelons and 310 grow cantaloupes.

The State Secretary added: he encourages all buyers to look for producers directly in addition to stores, as this way they are guaranteed to get fresh products.

The 2025 season started later than usual due to spring frosts, but Hungarian melons were available from greenhouse production in mid-June and from open-field areas in early July – all this was shared by István Varga, vice president of the FruitVeb Vegetable and Fruit Interprofessional Organization, about this season. According to the expert, it is gratifying that melon-growing areas have started to grow again, currently watermelons are grown on about 3,600-3,700 hectares, and cantaloupe on nearly 700 hectares, which in this case shows a significant, 62% increase compared to the previous year. He added that at the beginning of the season, Békés and Baranya counties dominated, but in August, Eastern Hungary, especially Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, provides a significant part of the supply.