This week the season for Egyptian grapes sent to the European market will come to an end. This will signal the end of the overseas grape campaign that was a rollercoaster of a season, marked by high uncertainties, most notably due to Covid, as well as unfavorable weather in production areas and difficulties with logistics.
According to a spokesperson for German importer ABC Fresh, the transition to the Egyptian grape season didn’t quite go as expected: “After the grapes from India, we expected a smooth transition to the Egyptian season. Unfortunately, as soon as the new season started we encountered a production shortage that was tougher than projected. Furthermore, the heat wave influenced the quality of the red seedless grapes and this made it into a quite challenging season at the end. The positive aspect is that we were able to mitigate these adverse effects and keep a steady market.”
The season from India also had its own challenges with the closure of the Suez Canal for several days. “When the ships were stuck in the Suez Canal, we along with many other importers had containers of grapes on the water. Some vessels were rerouted while others had to wait for the Canal to be re-opened. This was a short setback for the industry, but in a way pushed the market to stay stable until the end of the season.”
“Overall, logistics were, and still are a challenge: the Suez Canal was of course a very challenging incident, but we had to adapt to this new status-quo of low visibility manifested by regular shipping delays due to port congestions and difficulties loading some containers due to lack of equipment.”
ABC Fresh is specialized in grapes and exotics import. They source from various countries around the world with their grape season starting with the Peruvian and Brazilian grapes. “Our season this year started very prosperously even though the first few weeks the sales were a bit slow, this mainly because of the extended European grape season. However, when the market got cleared of European grapes, the sales went very well. In the second half of December, the first quality issues with red seedless grapes arose and continued through the whole season until the very end. As Chile and South Africa had to endure severe rainfall which impacted the quality.”
“Even though we encountered a lot of challenges, we were able to overcome them thanks to the support of our great suppliers, the expertise of our shipping and transport associates and the understanding of our customers. It was a great team work effort, from the people on the fields up to the end of the supply chain. We are already looking forward for next season and want to take this opportunity to thank all business partners.”
For more information:
ABC Fresh GmbH
Tel: +49 (40) 30 70 96 80
Email: info@abcfresh.de
www.abcfresh.de