"Focus on India because of empty white seedless grape market"

"The grape market again this year has its own story. During the last few weeks sales of grapes ran reasonably well, but last week they went quite a lot better already," Robert Kraaijeveld of PeDe says. "Clients realise that there are not all that many grapes in stock on the European market. The volume from Chile is a lot smaller.

Today we received the last container from South Africa with white seedless grapes, although the season for red, white and black grapes with seeds will still run for a while. The Indian grapes are on the way and the interest is clearly on grapes from India."

"We already have informed our clients that a smaller amount of white grapes will arrive on the market, but clients are still used to react only in the moment," Robert says. PeDe expect, to receive the first Indian grapes on Friday. The most important grape destinations for the company from Venlo are Scandinavia and Germany. "We are not party to the idea that there will be a shortage of Indian grapes, but we certainly do not expect large volumes."

"Only 5% of Indian grapes end up on the European market. This volume has also been rather curtailed as growers cannot export just like that, as the conditions for the European market are completely different," the importer says. "However, I hear that a lot of Indian grapes are exported to Bangladesh and that there is a strong local demand. Also the harvest is not extraordinarily large and certain areas have less fruit this year."

The controls on Indian grapes are still very strict, not only as a result of the debacle with MRL-problems in 2010. "Grapes in any case receive a more than average attention and cannot be limited to some random checks. We have samples flown in of each product, which are checked in German and Dutch laboratories. We do not expect problems, but we still maintain strict controls."

For more information:
Robert Kraaijeveld
PeDe BV
122d, Venrayseweg
5928 RH Venlo
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)77 3230230
Fax: +31 (0)77 3230275
www.pede.nl