It's been a difficult season for imported grapes, from Chile particularly, but that's starting to change. "So far this season supplies have been very, very difficult to get," says Michael Giordano of Consalo Family Farms®. "Since Peru started a little before Thanksgiving, and up until now where we have a mix of Peruvian and Chilean fruit, the market has been crazy. We are seeing an industry-wide shortage on grapes right now."
It's not only accessing grapes but also balancing colors that's a challenge--some weeks, green grapes are easier to find while other weeks, red grapes are harder to procure.
The weather is largely to blame for the lack of supply, thanks partly to it being an El Nino year. "Chile especially has just been hit with challenges whether it's wildfires, rain, freezes or even high temps. They've had a very rough year," he says. In turn, those developments caused a lot of issues in the fruit's flowering process, which has delayed harvest.
In addition, while Peru and Chile overlap in their seasons somewhat, in an attempt for Chile to have a stronger market and avoid Peru's window, Chile has been harvesting a lot of later varieties to hit peak supplies around March and April. (Typically those peaks would be in January and February.) "So it's not as bad a shortage as it may seem right now because it's also a delay," says Giordano.
Later Chilean harvest
That said, heavier volumes are coming and Chile may harvest a little later than normal to avoid the end of the Peruvian season. "We'll probably see arrivals into late April and the beginning of May," Giordano says.
To no surprise, grape demand is strong. "We have retailers and other marketers asking for grapes all the time," he says. "The toughest part is a lot of chain stores need to be able to sell reds and greens and it's been very difficult to get both. In turn, a lot of times orders are short because suppliers can't supply both colors."
All of this has left prices skyrocketing, even with the generally strong market that's seen on table grapes in the winter. FOB prices at this time of year are typically high $20s to low $30s. However, this season prices are as high as $50 and settling into the low $40s.
Looking ahead, relief is on the way. "Even though there are shortages, the U.S. market being so strong is helping send fruit to the U.S.," says Giordano. "Prices here are much better than they are in Europe and Asia right now so roughly 70 percent of fruit in Chile is headed to the U.S.--we typically only see half of that. With that and the later varieties, we'll start seeing more availability soon."
For more information:
Chelsea Consalo
Consalo Family Farms
Tel: +1 (856) 839-0264
[email protected]
www.consalofamilyfarms.com