Viral disease outbreaks and the abandonment of fields affected the 2026 watermelon season in Goiás, according to Hortifrúti/Cepea.
Excessive rainfall during planting reduced yields in the state’s first harvests, with average productivity below 30 tons per hectare in April. From late April through early June, higher temperatures improved yields, helping offset production costs, which remained elevated because of spending on agricultural inputs and diesel.
During June, viral disease spread across the region, reducing productivity by 13 per cent compared with May. At the same time, weaker demand, linked to milder temperatures in Brazil’s main consumer markets, combined with declining fruit quality in the field, resulted in an almost 50 per cent drop in the average selling price of large watermelons weighing more than 12 kilograms.
Average grower profitability in June fell to R$0.15/kg (US$0.03/kg), a decline of 79 per cent compared with May.
Despite these challenges, returns during the first three months of the 2026 harvest season, from April through June, were 77 per cent higher than during the same period in 2025.
Hortifrúti/Cepea noted that many fields in Goiás had to be abandoned and plowed under because of disease pressure. As a result, not all growers were able to market their fruit at prevailing prices, and production areas reported losses.
