High temperatures throughout the summer have resulted in a California table grape harvest in the Central Valley which is less uniform than normal. That has, in turn, led to less fruit held in inventory and a stronger grape market this season.
“We've seen sporadic quantities and fruit has been slow to color,” said Ron Wikum, category manager for table grapes at Bravante Produce. Bravante is a medium-sized grower, packer and shipper of table grapes based in California's Central Valley, and the weather there, noted Wikum, has been causing an unusual harvest.
“We had record heat in August and record heat during the first two weeks of September, and historically, when we've had warm days and warm nights, the fruit has been difficult to color,” he said. Because not all fruit has reached the necessary color for picking, Bravante has had to make more passes through their vineyards during this season's harvest. That's led to less uniform supplies, though not lower-quality fruit.
“While we might normally pick Crimsons three times, we might have to pick five times this year,” he said. “It's good solid fruit, we just have to go back more often.”
Though that's thrown off early crop projections, Wikum said one good thing that's come as a result has been an even-keeled market.
“Whenever you have a crop where the production cycle is slow, it helps regulate the market,” he said. “Because there's not a lot of fruit in inventory, better prices are sustained for a longer period of time.” The downside, however, is that they don't have as much of a supply as they'd like.
Bravante, which is in their second year of a three-year deal that sees them sell their grapes under the Sunkist brand, would like to have more fruit, noted Wikum.
“It's difficult as a marketer because we'd like to go forward with new deals, but we don't have enough fruit to cover all available business,” he said. With Sunkist providing marketing support and opening up opportunities they would otherwise not have, Wikum noted it's a good partnership for Bravante; but he added that there are many more opportunities that would be available if there were more grapes.
“We need to add volume,” he said. “There are Sunkist customers that would like to buy Sunkist grapes, but we don't have enough supplies to cover all of them right now.”
Despite not bringing in a record crop this year, and despite supplies not coming in as fast as many would like, he believes this will be a good season.
“Quantities are sporadic and we won't have a massive crop,” he said. “But quality is very good, and if the grapes color well, we'll have a good crop.”