Predictions for summer grape supply are that there are plenty available. “It’ll be a fun year on grapes,” says Christine Toy with Porterville, Ca.-based Homegrown Organic Farms. “The industry just has a lot of grapes this year.”Toy notes that while grapes coming out of Mexico just started last week, domestic grapes from Coachella, Ca. start this week. “All the rain that we had had an impact,” says Toy. “I’m quietly optimistic but it may be a tough season.” She notes that volumes are up for both conventional grapes as well as organic grapes, which for HGO, starts at the end of June and into early July. “It’s about two weeks behind but it can catch up if we get a hot spell and it stays for longer than two days,” adds Toy.
Varieties expand category
While size-wise the grapes look on track with last year’s crop, adding to the size are some of the varieties HGO will offer on organic grapes this season including the Ivory grape, which is a green grape; a Scarlet Royal, a newer variety of red grape; the Timco red grapes; and the Kelly grape, a green grape which HGO is offering for its first time.
“On the grapes, mainly red is popular with consumers—it sells two to one,” says Toy. “But with the newer green varieties, it may start to even out. Even so, it’ll take the consumer a little time to get caught up to it.”
For now, Toy doesn’t have any sense of how pricing is looking for the season. “I haven’t seen what’s coming out of Mexico in terms of pricing and that usually sets the tone,” she says. “The first two weeks are usually ridiculously high and then it settles in. So probably by the end of the month, we’ll have a feel for how things are going.”
For more information:
Cherie France
Homegrown Organic Farms
Tel: +1 559-306-1750
Cherie.France@hgofarms.com
www.hgofarms.com