Mexican grape shipments from the country's Sonora state are expected to total around 10.8m boxes this year, with volumes set to fall because of a cut-down in production area.
Juan Laborin, director general of the Sonora table grape association, told the Sonora Spring Summit last week that in addition to lower acreage, fewer chilling hours had resulted in lower numbers of bunches forming on vines.
Of the five categories, Flames are expected to hit 4.3m boxes, entering the US early to mid-May, with Sugarones forecast to reach 3.5m boxes, The Packer reported.
Perlettes will be the first to market in early May and will total around 2m boxes, Red Globes are expected to ship 500,000 boxes, and Black grape varieties will are also forecast to total 500,000 boxes.
The fruit is expected to be met by competition from Chilean produce when it enters the US, according to The Packer.
John Pandol, director of special products for Pandol Bros. in California, said that millions of boxes of Chilean berries were waiting in cold storage with more fruit arriving weekly – a result of favourable exchange rates and reduced Asian demand.
