According to traders in the Koyembedu wholesale market in Chennai, the main reason for this are the increased cost of diesel and labour, over last year. The labour charges in the market have gone up from Rs 70 per day per person last year to Rs 100 this year.

Watermelons are cultivated across the country and there has been overproduction in all the places. The Koyembedu wholesale fruit market is currently receiving 10 to 15 trucks (each consisting 10 to 12 tonne each) per day, compared to the arrivals of 5 to 10 trucks per day in the last season. Apart from that, the fruits are directly coming from the gardens near Mahabalipuram, Dindivanam, Villipuram and Porur in Tamil Nadu to other wholesale markets in the city.

Normally, the season for the fruit begins in March and goes on till end-April. However, this year the fruits made an appearance in Chennai from December itself. According to secretary of Chennai Fruits Commission Agents Association Mohammed Rafi, watermelon traders in the city, for the first time, imported about 10 to 20 tonne of the fruit per day from Davengere and Hassan in Karnataka in the months of December-January.

Seeing the good market response to the early arrival of watermelon, normally considered a summer fruit, despite the cold climate, fruit traders in the city are planning to import the fruit from Karnataka every December, he said. It was north Indians in the city who experimented with the fruit first, influencing the conservative south Indians who are usually very cautious about unseasonal fruit, he added.