The United States of America is the country buying the most watermelons in the world, according to data from Comtrade, the Statistics Division of the United Nations (UN).
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The total volume of watermelon imports in 2015 reached 3,003.41 million kilos. The United States bought 705.04 million kilos (23.47%), Germany, 362.2 million (12.06%) and Canada 225.35 million kilos (7.5%).
The fourth largest buyer was China, with 200.76 million kilos (6.68), followed by France, with 148.93 million kilos (4.96%), Poland with 121.47 million kilos (4.04%), the Netherlands, with 112.49 million kilos (3.75%), the United Kingdom, with 108.9 million kilos (3.63%), the Czech Republic, with 89.55 million kilos (2.98%) and Italy, with 47.47 million kilos, 1.58 percent of the total.
In 2015, Spain imported a total of 46.34 million kilos of watermelons, 1.54 percent of the world's total.
The three largest buyers, the U.S., Germany and Canada, account for 43.03 percent of the world's total watermelon imports.
The total amount invested by all countries in buying watermelons in 2015 reached 1,254.9 million Euro. The United States made purchases worth 325 million Euro (0.461 €/kilo), Germany bought 181.94 million Euro worth of watermelons (0.502 €/kilo) and Canada spent 106.24 million Euro (0.471 €/kilo).
For its part, France paid 77.94 million at an average price of 0.523 Euro per kilo; the Netherlands paid 67.22 million (0.598 € / kg); the United Kingdom, 58.64 million (0.598 €/kg); Poland, 35 million Euro (0.288 €/kg); China invested 34.3 million (0.171 Euro per kilo); the Czech Republic spent 26.29 million Euro (0.294 €/kg); Spain made watermelon purchases worth a total of 25.07 million Euro (0.541 €/kg) and, lastly, Italy invested a total of 20.27 million Euro in 2015, with an average price of 0.427 Euro per kilo.
The United States bought 620 million kilos of watermelons, 87.94 percent of its total purchases, from Mexico. The US also purchases 75.92 million kilos from Guatemala and 4.37 million kilos from Honduras.
Germany's largest supplier was Spain, with 238.61 million kilos, 65.88 percent of its total purchases. The second largest was Italy, with 68.66 million kilos, followed by Greece, with 16.56 million kilos.
For its part, Canada bought 65.96 percent of its watermelons to the United States, with 148.64 million kilos. It also purchased 65 million kilos from Mexico and 8.4 million from Guatemala.
China made most of its watermelon purchases to Vietnam, with a total of 188.66 million kilos, 93.97 percent of the fruit's total imports. It also bought 11.89 million kilos from Myanmar and 211,000 kilos from Malaysia.
France made its purchases primarily to Spain, with 88.97 million kilos, which was 59.74 percent of its total watermelon imports. It also bought 19.53 million kilos from Morocco and 16.96 million kilos from Italy. ■