This won’t be a perfect grape season, but according to George Saliaris-Fasseas, founder of the Greek Grape Company, it could well be the best season of the upcoming years, as climate change will make things worse as time goes on, he says:
“The 2023 Greek grape season looks very strange. The only positive thing is, that it will be much better than 2024, 2025, 2026 and after that. The weather has been getting more and more erratic, with wild changes. This year, we’re in a much better position than Spain, as we have ample water and no heat waves this year. The same goes for Italy, as we had no floods. However, our grape production is still 20 per cent less than planned. This was due to the rains during bloom time, around May and June, and due to the fact that five hectares of our IFG Sugar Crisp orchards have no crop! Even IFG technical personnel blamed the weather, but obviously this is not good for our business and needs careful consideration for the following years.”
Some varieties will see a serious drop in production, but for other varieties the quality and volumes are solid, Saliaris-Fasseas explains. “Last season we did not harvest our IFG Sweet Globe due to September rains. This year, we have exceptional quality for this variety, which will end up in UK retailers' shelves in both white and mixed punnets. So we are 100 per cent committed to this variety! Our IFG Sugar Crisp will be much lower in terms of export volumes, we expect a 30 to 40 per cent drop due to uneven berry size and the 5 hectares of damage I mentioned earlier. Our red varieties, IFG Sweet Celebration and IFG Jack Salute, look spectacular at this point. I hope the weather remains kind and we get great quality!”
Multiple Greek regions had to deal with these erratic weather conditions, leading to damages, Saliaris-Fasseas states: “In our area Halkidiki, which is located in north Greece, we had rainfalls during the bloom time and ended up with damages and uneven fruit in one variety. Apart from that, the temperature never reached above 36C, and it only reached those temperatures for a single day, and we have the north wind drying the atmosphere towards the sea. This north wind is the reason, I believe, grapes have been cultivated in Agios Pavlos, Halkidiki, where are farms are located, for centuries.”
“Crete had various mildew problems and the harvest finished very early compared to previous years. Corinth, which is the main production area, famous for Thompson Seedless, will see more than 60% lower volumes compared to last year, due to mildew, water shortages and vines left uncultivated by growers who have struggled the last three years. Kavala is very mixed, but as always will come with handy late fruit which will be harvested with no ideal brix due to market pressure.”
Greek Grape Company intends to branch out to different markets, including Sweden and Norway, Saliaris-Fasseas says. “Every year we focus on three markets. UK retailers are our largest customers followed by a German supermarket and two Dutch supermarket chains. We have interest both from other markets and retailers, but unfortunately we don't have more volume and need to be selective. We have 'flirted' the last two years with two German supermarkets and two chains; one in Sweden and the other from Norway. These markets are more practical than the UK, which does not justify all the loopholes we need to jump through to comply. Nevertheless, 2023 is the 33rd year I have been serving Tesco in the UK with seedless grapes, and I guess I have a sweet spot for our UK customers.”
Grape growers storing their harvest for later in the year are the ones making the most money according to Saliaris-Fasseas: “Some people, who have the nerve to store fruit for November, will make a lot of money. We will not be among those people, as we will need to satisfy our supermarket programs and have committed all of our volumes. I don't know any billionaire farmers at the moment, but I hope we’ll have a grape farmer in the November 2023 Forbes list,” he concludes.
For more information:
George Saliaris-Fasseas
Greek Grape Company
Email: g@ggc.gr
www.ggc.gr