While it sure tastes like fruit, did you know that the big juicy watermelon belongs to the cucumber, squash and pumpkin vegetable family? Canadian farmers grew and sold record amounts of this sweet summer treat in 2023, delighting consumers nationwide.
A year of many records for watermelons
Canadian farmers grew a record-high 36,283 tonnes of watermelon in 2023, up 3.6% from a year earlier and over 10 times more than they grew two decades earlier (3,041 tonnes in 2003).
Farmers planted a record high 840 hectares of watermelon in 2023, an area comparable in size to Rockwood Park in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Farmers fetched a record-high $19.9 million for their watermelons in 2023, up 8.4% from a year earlier.
Most Canadian watermelons are grown in Ontario
Watermelons were grown commercially in every province in 2023.
Ontario farmers grew 35,084 tonnes of watermelon in 2023, up 3.8% from a year earlier and accounting for 96.7% of all watermelons grown nationally.
Quebec (563 tonnes) and British Columbia (463 tonnes) ranked a very distant second and third in terms of production.
Farmers in Nova Scotia (102 tonnes) grew the most watermelons in the Maritimes, while Manitoba (20 tonnes) was the top producer on the Prairies.
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