"White seedless grapes scarce at the moment"

The situation on the grape market is different for both seedless and seeded grapes at the moment. According to André Nieuwenhuis of Olympic Fruit there are less white seedless grapes on the market. "It's all a bit scarce but the demand is good. This means they have good prices." He believes this has various causes. "First of all the South African season for white seedless grapes is almost over. India has just started, but not much is coming from there. We expect the Indian season to get going around week 12, so until then it will be tight."

Enough of the rest
He indicates that there are enough seeded grapes on the market. "There are still large numbers coming from South Africa, that the season will run for another while. There are also enough red and blue seedless from this origin." As far as the market situation is concerned the view hasn't changed much over the last few weeks. "It's a bit calmer with carnaval and the spring holiday, it's noticeable."

Huge production
André is moderately enthusiastic about the South African season. "It's a completely different season compared to last year, with generally larger volumes and low prices. Last year the weather conditions were less favourable, there was a lot of damage in the Orange River, for instance. This wasn't the case this year, the harvests were fine." Despite South Africa also supplying to other markets a lot is still sent to Europe. Exporters have less profit due to the low exchange rate for the Euro, but it hasn't really resulted in less supply so far."

For more information:
André Nieuwenhuis
Olympic Fruit
Handelscentrum ZHZ 40-A
2991 LD Barendrecht
Tel. +31 180 64 62 03
www.olympicfruit.com