As California’s famed table grape season begins with May’s early varieties from Coachella Valley, buyers and sellers alike look forward to the sweet swell of demand. The 2015-16 season gave Golden State growers their third largest crop in history with 110.5 million boxes, and set the record for crop value at $1.83 billion. This year promises another bumper crop with growers looking to hit a fourth consecutive year of significant and possibly recordbreaking volume.
Over 85 varieties of green, red, and black grapes are nurtured with “proper water, ideal consistent temperatures, and patience” for the perfect crop to come into fruition, says Peter Vallis, manager of grower-shipper EG Enterprises.
For the state itself, competition is in overdrive with a steady replacement of old varieties by exciting new cultivars that boast longer shelf life, better taste, and fill in the gaps between growing seasons.
Thriving International Exchange
Although uncertainties loom, the export market is huge business for table grape suppliers, shipping to 50 different countries worldwide according to the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture.
For Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, a Bakersfield grower-shipper, Asia is by far its biggest export market. Varieties like Passion Punch red, which has a late window, are groomed perfectly for the export market.
“Exporters want later varieties because tariffs come down in October, so we try to get them the latest grapes we can,” says Mimi Corsaro-Dorsey, vice president of marketing and director of export sales for Giumarra.
The Chuck Olsen Company in Visalia also ships a great deal to the Asian markets, with China and Korea as its biggest receivers. Jeff Olsen, president of the company, is optimistic that new varieties will cause an uptick in exports.
Derrick Daniell, president of Double D Sales Company, Inc. in Visalia, who also sends much of his supply to Southeast Asia—Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia—sees the export market continuing to rise as well. “We focus on growing for export markets,” he says, noting this year’s spring was “the start of a good quality season.” Mother Nature, he says, gave suppliers “a beautiful crop.”
Although many in the industry are heavily involved in exports, they deal with their share of both domestic and international challenges. According to Louie Galvan, director of Fruit Royale, Inc., these “include but are not limited to the quality of the product at the time of demand, domestic demands on the product available, money exchange rates, and an ever-changing world market.”
