Strong wrap up for Peru
While Peru volume is comparable to last year’s, Ison estimates that grapes coming in from Chile are about 300 per cent more than this time last year. “And the Peru fruit compared to fruit from Chile is a lot better quality,” she says. “And the sizing is much better as well. It’s more mature fruit whereas the fruit from Chile is a bit early and hasn’t been able to hang as long.”
And with the Peru market ending likely next week and the early Chilean volume of fruit coming in, it of course affects pricing.
“Prices on green seedless grapes from Peru are pretty steady while the red grape market is falling drastically. A week ago, it was $22-$24 and we’re now somewhere near $18 on Chilean fruit because of volume,” Ison says. Quality issues are likely affecting pricing too since early fruit tends to be low on color. “And it’s probably sizing too. There are a lot of 500 and 300s around and that’s driving a fairly open market. A lot of people are putting fruit out PAS and therefore it’s hard to get a fixed price on even a 700 code because there’s just so much free fruit around.” 
Commodity demand looks light
Meanwhile demand remains steady. “While at this time last year we had high prices and lower supply due to the weather in Chile, this year it’s been pretty consistent demand,” she says. “But commodities overall are lighter coming out of Christmas and that’s across the board. There doesn’t seem to be too much driving retail promotion at the moment.”
For more information:
Casey Ison
AMC North America
Tel: +1 856-241-7977
casey@amcna.com
http://amcna.com/