Watermelon Prices in the United States from 2020 to 2025

Key Points

• Research suggests watermelon prices in the US from 2020 to 2023 ranged from $16.80 to $23.10 per hundredweight (cwt), with fluctuations due to production and market conditions.

• It seems likely that 2024 and 2025 prices are not yet available from official sources, but current market data suggests prices may be higher based on recent trends.

Price Overview

Watermelon prices, measured per hundredweight (cwt), show variability over the years based on agricultural reports. From 2020 to 2023, prices increased from $16.80 to a peak of $23.10 in 2022, then slightly decreased to $21.40 in 2023. This reflects changes in production, demand, and market dynamics. For 2024 and 2025, official annual data is not available as of March 25, 2025, but recent market reports indicate prices might be higher, though exact figures are uncertain due to the lack of comprehensive reports.

Historical Price Data (2020–2023)

The primary source for historical watermelon prices is the NASS Vegetables Annual Summary, which reports prices per hundredweight (cwt), reflecting farm-level prices received by producers. Watermelon, despite being botanically a fruit, is categorized under vegetables in these reports, which is an important classification for data analysis.

• 2020: The price was $16.80 per cwt, as reported in the February 2021 Vegetables Annual Summary (Vegetables Annual Summary 2021). This figure aligns with a noted decrease in production, with the price per pound reported at 17 cents in other sources, suggesting a farm-level price consistent with NASS data.

• 2021: The price increased to $17.70 per cwt, as per the February 2022 report. This modest rise reflects stable production and market conditions, with a 3% increase noted in some state-specific data, such as Florida.

• 2022: Prices peaked at $23.10 per cwt, according to the February 2023 report. This significant jump, up from 2021, may be attributed to production decreases and market dynamics, with reports indicating a 27% increase in value of utilized production for vegetables overall, potentially influencing watermelon prices.

• 2023: The price decreased slightly to $21.40 per cwt, as reported in the February 2024 Vegetables Annual Summary (Vegetables Annual Summary 2024). This suggests a stabilization or slight market correction after the 2022 peak, with production data showing variations by state, such as increased volumes in Florida.

The following table summarizes the national-level prices for these years:

State-level data, when available, shows variations. For instance, in 2023, Florida's price was $24.40 per cwt, while Georgia's was $21.60 per cwt, highlighting regional differences.

Data for 2024 and 2025

Efforts to locate it via Cornell University's USDA repository (USDA Economics, Statistics and Market Information System) and NASS publications (NASS Publications) were unsuccessful, suggesting potential access issues or delays in public availability. The NASS Quick Stats tool (Quick Stats) was identified as a resource for querying data, but direct interaction was not possible, limiting access to 2024 figures.

For 2025, no annual summary is expected yet, as reports typically cover the previous year's data and are released in February of the following year. However, recent market data from the AMS, specifically the March 7, 2025, report (AMS Market News Report), provides wholesale prices for specific types and locations, such as red flesh seedless miniature watermelons at $25.00–$28.50 per carton for 8s in Nogales, Arizona. Converting these to per cwt proved challenging due to uncertainties in carton weights and watermelon sizes (e.g., miniature vs. standard), with estimates ranging from $51 to $154 per cwt based on assumptions, but these did not align with historical NASS data, suggesting they reflect retail or specific market segments rather than farm-level averages.

Estimation and Trends

Given the lack of official data, trends from 2020 to 2023 suggest price volatility, with a peak in 2022 and a slight decline in 2023. If we assume 2024 prices follow 2023 at $21.40 per cwt, and for 2025, based on recent AMS data, we might estimate higher prices (e.g., around $50 per cwt from rough calculations), but these are speculative and not verified. The evidence leans toward prices stabilizing or increasing slightly in recent years, influenced by production volumes and market conditions, but exact figures require future NASS reports.

Supplementary sources, such as Mintec data from August 2023 (What's Up with Watermelon? Prices, for Starters), indicated retail prices reaching $5.33 per melon in mid-July 2023, up 49% from the previous year, but these are retail figures, not comparable to NASS's farm-level per cwt prices. Export and import prices from IndexBox (Watermelon Price in the United States - 2025) showed stability at around $0.60 per kg in recent years, but again, these are not domestic farm prices.

Classification Note

An interesting detail is that watermelon, botanically a fruit, is classified under vegetables in NASS reports, affecting data categorization. This is evident from the Vegetables Annual Summary reports, which include watermelons alongside crops like cucumbers and tomatoes, as seen in the 2023 report's contents.

Conclusion

This analysis provides watermelon prices from 2020 to 2023 based on NASS data, with a gap for 2024 and 2025 due to unavailable official reports. Future updates in February 2026 will likely include 2025 data.