Vegetables by Bayer and its Seminis seed brand signed an agreement to sponsor watermelon grower and NASCAR driver Ross Chastain. The sponsorship was officially kicked off this past weekend at the June 5 NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis.

This month, the National Watermelon Promotion Board has launched its largest consumer-focused campaign of the year, Use the Whole Watermelon, aimed at showing the taste, health, economic and sustainable benefits of the full watermelon, inside and out.

The National Watermelon Promotion Board’s Foodservice program has a goal of placing more watermelon on menus, year-round, to move more watermelon through the supply chain and to keep watermelon top-of-mind with consumers.

To help achieve this, the NWPB uses operator success stories with watermelon to earn or pay for placements in foodservice publications to inspire other operators, according to Megan McKenna, senior director of marketing and foodservice.

The National Watermelon Promotion Board’s spring and summer 2022 consumer program is going to capitalize on watermelon’s value and versatility benefits with a launch of a Use the Whole Watermelon 2.0. campaign.

Wada Farms got into the watermelon business five years ago, and a year ago it took a major step forward to expand the category by adding a longtime industry veteran to oversee the program.

Watermelon shippers enjoyed some strong markets earlier this spring, as the f.o.b. pricing for fruit from Mexico was in the mid-$300s in March and most of April. Then the bottom fell out.

“It was a really tight market in March and April, and then April 25 came and it’s been a bumper crop for just about everyone in Sonora,” said John Gee, vice president of sales for Eagle Eye Produce. “All the fields looked great, and we were, shall I say, ‘blessed’ with a ton of watermelon.”