With the grapes at the tail end of the EU season arriving in poor condition, most were looking forward to getting into the Southern Hemisphere grape season, according to John Fox at Pacific Produce.
"The concerns of oversupply from Peru / Brazil soon changed when the U.S. season was cut short, calling on Peru to send to the U.S. market and paying really high prices," said John. "Not all, but a lot of Peruvian growers would have cut EU programmes and sent their grapes to the U.S., taking the money which would have eased pressure on large arrivals from Peru."
© Pacific Produce
"Peru in general was a little late in starting, but once we got going, things ran smoothly enough. There was no fight for grapes as on previous 2-3 seasons with huge shortages and prices. The Packers seemed to have been better organised, and the general demand wasn't as strong as in previous years. This may have been a knock-on effect from the consumer buying the short-life EU grapes. Dutch traders who have done well from the previous seasons would have noticed the lack of demand from the UK.
Pacific Produce had the last arrivals from Piura early January, and Ica finished packing last week, which was earlier than normal.
John recons that Brazil started ok; however, during the main arrivals, they did have a lot of quality issues, and it was a very messy season in general, and large arrivals of Cotton Candy didn't help.
For more information:
John Fox
Pacific Produce
[email protected]
