The first Indian grapes have arrived in Europe last week,they have met a difficult market full of South American fruit. This is addingto problems ongoing from 2010's CCC residue issue which devastated the Indiangrape export.
Nina Patil from Fresh Express agrees that the market isslow at the moment. The company's first Thompsons seedless arrived in theCzech Republic this week and two more containers will arrive in Rotterdam nextweek, following this there will be shipments to CIS, South East Asia and theMediterranean. She said a lot of effort has been made to ensure grapesmeet EU and retail supermarket standards. Grape samples are sent to European Labs, before harvesting and packedfor export only after meeting required MRL standards. Although for the first time since the residue issuesgrapes are being allowed into Germany the volumes are very small and the bigretailers are still not taking them.
According to Nina people are still apprehensive aboutIndian grapes, despite a series ofconfidence building measures by the Indian Government and members of the Grape Exporters Association of India. "Indian grapes are the same quality as, any other grapes in the market, butpeople are offering a much lower price for them and Indian exporters areobjecting to this".
Fresh Express is exporting 50% less grapes this seasoncompared to 3 years ago. More are going to the domestic market and also forraisins. The total amount which will be exported this season is not known, Ninafirst wants to study the market and then decide how to proceed. The company isalso looking at new markets such as expanding sales in SE Asia. "Being Grower – Exporters, a definite advantage is we own and can control the entire process from end to end, and thus the confidence in our product."
Nina says the way ahead is not to compromise on price,because the quality of the grapes remains high and she is confident of thecompany's product and believes things will improve soon.
For more information:
Nina Patil
FRESH EXPRESS LOGISTICS
B - III, M.I.D.C.,
MIRAJ 416 410.
Sangli. Maharashatra, India
Tel: +91 233 2644725
Fax: +91 233 2644170
Mob: +91 93 25355512
nina@freshexpress.in
www.freshexpressindia.com