Growers ready for Mexico grape season to start

Growers are preparing for the upcoming Mexican table grape season. Filling a gap between the South American and Central Californian seasons, Mexico is seeing a steady market for their fruit. The first shipments are set to arrive in early May and volume is predicted to peak by the beginning of June. 

"We expect to see our first crossing on May 7," said John Pandol, of Pandol Brothers based in Delano, California. "By the end of May, we will be seeing 3,000,000 boxes a week crossing and this will extend into the first weeks of June. In total, Pandol predictions are for there to be just shy of 16,000,000 boxes this season, which is comparable to the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons, but less than last year's record season when everything went just right."

"The industry will be making their official estimate on April 20 at the Sonora Spring Summit in Hermosillo," Pandol announced. 

Pandol explained that this year, the front of the season will be lighter, with the tail end to be slightly heavier. He said this will work in well with the end of the Chilean season. "Volume will take a while to get going this year until we reach normal peak levels," he shared. "However, after June 20, there will be a heavier than normal tail as more vineyards are coming into fruit later. Therefore, we expect to see a smooth transition from the southern hemisphere to the desert, because the back end of the Chilean season is expected to be heavy."

As a result, supply should remain fairly stable, unlike last year. "The market should be smoother than last year as we will see sufficient volume from Chile still coming through as Mexico gradually ramps up. Last year, the fruit dried up towards the end of the Chilean season which caused a few bumps in the market."

In terms of new plantings and new varieties, growers have noted that this is occurring more intensely in Mexico than in California. They are however, limited by a number of factors, with plant availability being one of them. Another is the fact they can only use licensed varieties. 

"Mexican growers are aggressive in getting new varieties going," Pandol said. "However, proprietary varieties are the only ones they can commercially grow there. The biggest problem is the availability of plant material - they just can't get them fast enough. None of the grape breeders have in country nursery arrangements. As a result, the transition from old to new plants is slow but substantial, and we estimate that up to 7 percent of the vineyards are replanted with new stock each year, as opposed to about 5 percent for California grapes. In the desert areas, grapevines need to be replaced about once every 15 years."

Pandol also noted that there is a fair bit of experimentation going in Mexico, but growers tend to remain tight-lipped about them, as they need to gather more observations and data before they can confidently grow a variety in commercial quantities. The proprietary varieties are released with much less testing than the traditional university based programs."

"Growers tend to remain quiet when they're in the experimentation phase," he said. "This is because it's hard to discover any potential production problems until you get more familiar with the plant over time. You never know what might happen and how the plant reacts when you take it to different locations, for example. There is even talk of trials of grapes in the more tropical parts of the country as growers seeks a larger window in the market."

"For Pandol Brothers, we will be promoting Sweet Celebration as one of our newer varieties this year that will have significant volume," he added. "Currently, varieties considered as 'new' pass for around 10 percent of our total program."

At an industry meeting last Wednesday, the Arizona Department of Agriculture announced they would be changing some of their procedures. The aim is to improve efficiency at border crossings, meaning it will be quicker and easier to move Mexican produce into the United States.

"At the industry meeting, representatives from the inspection service said they will be streamlining some of the processes at border crossings in Arizona," Pandol explained. "First of all, ‘Super Lots' will be allowed, where up to three import shipments of grapes may be inspected at the same time. This will save time, especially for special packs where most of the order crosses on one truck and one or two pallets gets loaded on a different truck. The old ‘one truck, one inspection’ rule was simply a legacy practice and had nothing to do with the integrity of the inspection process. It should be noted that a three truckload 'Super Lot' is still smaller than the inspection lots permitted off ships."

"Another new procedure will involve trials of tablet technology for reporting purposes," he continued. "The technology was developed in Georgia and will cut down on hand-written paperwork that would otherwise need to be entered into the system. Now with a tablet, that reporting process will become much quicker and simpler, freeing up a lot more time."

For more information:

John Pandol

Tel: +1 (661) 725-3755