California’s grape industry has set a new record for crop value, with sales generating US$1.83bn in 2015, according to the Californian Table Grape Commission. The performance surpasses the previous record of US$1.76bn set in 2014.
Exports accounted for 34.7 per cent of the total volume sold, with 37.9m cartons shipped internationally at a value of US$737.8m.
Canada was the industry’s largest export destination, taking 11.3m cartons, followed by Mexico (5.7m cartons), China/Hong Kong (3.5m cartons), the Philippines (1.9m cartons) and Taiwan (1.8m cartons).
The 2015 crop volume of 110.5m cartons was the third largest in industry history, behind the record 117.4m cartons produced in 2013 and just below the 2014 total of 110.9m cartons.
“Since the industry surpassed the 100m carton mark for the first time in its history in 2012, the total crop volume has seen three consecutive years over 110m cartons,” said Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission.
With the 2016 season only about six weeks away, the commission is gearing up its global campaign for California grapes.
“The commission’s campaign focuses on motivating the trade to promote, and consumers to buy, more grapes from California more often,” Nave said.
