"Brazilian grape export has more and more competition from local demand"

The Egyptian and Moroccan grape season has ended. At the moment the Spanish and Italians are on the market and the Greek season starts next week. "The Egyptian season went well," evaluates Ben Taleb of Capespan. "There was immediately a good demand until the big volumes arrived. At the end it got a little more difficult, but all in all it was better than last year. Last year the Egyptian varieties arrived earlier and there was more overlapping. Now it was spread out better."

Strong decrease in export, increase inland consumption

Ben is just back from Brazil and that season will start in mid September. "We can see that in the last years the demand in the inland market has grown a lot and the export will have to compete with. The last two years this has become more and more obvious. Also because the Brazilians earn more in their own market on average, so this makes the export more difficult. Besides that there have also not been any large plantings recently. The advantage of less export is the higher prices. Due to the high production and export costs this is an important element to control the export to Europe."

The new Cape label for grape punnets (?). This brand and label will also start in Brazil this year

"Due to a lower supply from Brazil the shortages will have to be filled in other ways. In October Greece will still be on the market. This can partially complement. The risk at the end of the season is that the quality won't be great which would mean there would be demand from grapes from the Southern Hemispere. As the current estimates in Greece are lower than last year during the blooming period, there is a greater chance that the Brazilian grapes will go into a good market."

Increasing demand for seedless

He expects the first Brazilian grapes to be packaged around week 36/37. "At the beginning of October the large volumes enter Europe. The weather in Brazil is stable and the prospects for the new season are good. More of the red seedless has been planted. This demand is mainly increasing in the local market. The area of the white seedless is stable. Throughout the years we can see an increasing demand for seedless grapes on the whole. But there are still enough markets for the varieties with seeds. Especially in Poland and Eastern Europe they are starting to realise that grapes with seeds also have a good taste. In new varieties there are often also varieties with seeds that have an excellent taste. The development of new varieties runs constantly, even though the products have to go through different phases before they can be put on the market commercially."

In October there will be Peruvian grapes again. "This is really a growing country on the area of grape export. I expect the volumes in the future to increase more and more."

Capesan Continent is the main importer of South African and Chilean grapes, and also a large player in Brazil, Peru, India and Egypt. "Together with the European production we offer a year round programme of seedless grapes. The Southern Hemisphere is our specialisation and Europe is more of a supplement."

For more information:
Ben Taieb
Capespan Continent N.V.
Noorderlaan 147
2030 Antwerpen - België
Tel: +32 3 546 09 23
Fax: +32 3 546 09 08
www.capespan.com