Mexico's Sonora table grape season started later than originally expected and just a few weeks into harvest, the season was interrupted by weather issues in a bad way. An early tropical depression developed from the south and brought a lot of moisture to the Sonora region. What made the situation worse is that the tropical depression encountered a cold front coming from the north. They converted with each other and created some havoc on Sunday, June 1st. "While we didn't get much rain, the main grape variety being harvested at the time, Flame Seedless, is infamously known for not being able to withstand humidity," says Carlos Bon with Divine Flavor. The humid weather conditions caused splitting and cracking of the fruit and put a strain on the grapes that were ready to be harvested. The Summer Royal variety was impacted to a lesser extent.
Impact of rain and humidity on Flame Seedless grapes.
Reduced volume Flame Seedless
"We knew the rain was coming and prepared for it," commented Bon. "We stopped packing for three days and instead, we sent our crews into the vineyards to clean the clusters of fruit prior to packing." While this was crucial in bringing the best quality fruit to market, it significantly reduced the volume of Flame Seedless coming to the U.S. On June 6, a total of 102,000 boxes of Flame Seedless crossed the border to the U.S., which compares to 199,000 boxes on the same day last year. On June 6, 2023, that number amounted to 302,000 boxes.
So far, 2.1 million boxes have crossed the border this season while last year up until this time, that number amounted to 3.2 million. "I don't remember the last time we saw this little volume of Flame Seedless crossing the border," admitted Bon. "This season, we won't even reach the 200,000 boxes/day level."
Bunch of grapes after it has been cleaned up.
Gap in green grape supply
In addition to the low volumes of the red Flame Seedless variety coming in, the Mexican grape industry is encountering another problem, which is an unforeseen gap in mid-season green grape supply. The early greens were short on yields and their season finished prematurely. Mid-season green grapes like Timpson™ and Sweet Globe™ on the other hand are delayed, creating a supply shortage in the market. In general, the volume of green grapes is very low and as a result, pricing is extremely high. "From what I can remember, it's the highest it's ever been this time of the year," commented Bon.
High pricing will continue for the remainder of this week, but change is coming. "As of next week, more volume will become available, and pricing should move into a sensible direction and settle there." While the mid-season varieties will enter an empty pipeline, volume should build up quickly with promotional opportunities in terms of volume and pricing expected in the last week of June and the first week of July. "On both colors, we are anticipating a very strong crop for the late part of the Mexican season," mentioned Bon. Later varieties like Sweet Globe™, Sweet Celebration™, and Cotton Candy™ were immature and had no sugar at the time the rain hit, so they aren't impacted.
Real season about to start
All in all, the rain put a strain on the supply of Flame Seedless this season and the challenges with green grape supply are causing a gap in the market. "While the first part of the season didn't go as planned, we are optimistic for the last part of the season because the back half will be the fun half," Bon said. "Even though the season started up about a month ago, the real season is just now getting started."
For more information:
Michael DuPuis
Divine Flavor
Tel: +1 (520) 281-8328
[email protected]
www.divineflavor.com