SPAIN

It seems that, after a rocky year in 2004, Spain has had a relatively successful season. As was reported in FPJ earlier this year, the Spanish embassy recorded a 100 per cent increase in its licensed Superior Seedless output this year, with over 400,000 boxes sold by the UK’s major retailers, some of which posted increases of 56 to 214 per cent year-on-year. However, this increase has to be viewed in context as Spanish Superior suffered massively from poor weather conditions in the previous year and volumes and quality suffered as a result. Steve Parmenter from A Gomez explains: “in 2004 there was a heavy frost in Spain which damaged the vines, affected yield, and subsequently had a detrimental effect on sales,” he says.

But, according to many in the Spanish grape sector, the climate this year certainly favoured its growers, producing a vintage supply that was widely praised for its flavour. “The volumes from Spain were very good this year and the quality of Superior was excellent in the main,” says Neil Denny of importer Richard Hochfeld. “There were also good volumes of Ralli, and this joined up with Crimson to allow a seamless supply from Spain. There were some hiccups during the Crimson season, but the general problems were not difficult to overcome,” he explains.

Part of this drive is down to a general move away from seeded grapes in favour of high-class seedless varieties. Parmenter says sales have been phenomenal. “In the last few years, sales of seeded grape have fallen dramatically as consumers prefer to buy ready-to-eat seedless grapes. Since Gomez introduced Spanish Crimson to UK consumers, sales have rocketed every year,” he says. “This can be explained by the superb dark crimson colour, firm berry and special sweet taste which cannot be matched by any other readily available grape variety.”

ITALY

So good for so long were the volumes from Spain that supply trod on the toes of Italian counterparts. Producing 21 per cent of the worldwide grape harvest, Italy has a relatively small share of the UK grape market, but even this was compromised last season, Denny says. While Italy’s grape exports were of a reasonable quality, the cheaper end was forced out by an abundant Spanish supply. “Italy had some very good fruit, although volumes dropped as the market was amply supplied by Spanish product,” he reveals.

Jonathon Olins, at non-supermarket specialist Poupart, agrees: “Some of the Italian fruit was expensive and may have gone elsewhere, but [Poupart] went for the top end, otherwise it might have been difficult for us,” he says.

He explains that while demand was relatively stable, the company experienced some quality problems. “Our experience has been that the seedless grape has been better than last year, when they had a lot of quality issues. This year the volumes were higher on the seeded varieties Globe and Italia but there was some problems with split berries and waste. The waste was down to weather; people started losing confidence. It was a slightly better season, but not what I would call a vintage season. We did do a fair chunk though.”

Despite the Italian grape sector seemingly moving towards seedless varieties, it still produces a lot of seeded cultivars for both the foreign and domestic markets, but Olins says the UK was more receptive to seeded this year: “Overall, fruit was well presented, and although the seeded varieties are not so popular, they were well received. Normally there’s less and less interest in them each year, but because the quality was so good they sold well. Berries were large and ate well and that had a good impact.”

GREECE

It seems the biggest surprise for importers was last season’s Greek supply. With an 11 per cent share in the UK grape market, its problems were a real challenge for importers and have compromised the UK’s supposed seamless 12-month supply chain. Denny reports a 30 per cent reduction in volumes on the previous year, although he concedes that last year had been a pretty heavy crop, which may account for some of the shortfall.

However, volumes were still down and this reduction caused a wave of problems as the supply chain was put under strain by high prices from the outset. Because of the lower volumes expected this year the price set by the growers was high in the beginning, making supply to the UK very marginal for the packers and exporters. “The traditional timetable has been Greek from August 15 to the first week of November, the last three weeks of this being augmented by Californian grape, which usually runs to the middle of November. Brazil then takes over and forms the bridge into South African fruit at the start of December,” Denny explains.

“This year they had hot weather in California, which had a negative impact on the storage potential of their Thompson. This had two effects. Firstly the volume of Californian fruit sent to the UK was dramatically reduced, and secondly the amount of Brazilian fruit shipped to the US increased leaving the UK shorter than expected.

“The general situation has also been compounded by poor weather in the early areas of South Africa, which has inhibited supplies from there. In short, Greece finished early, US didn’t happen, Brazil was light and South Africa is late. The end result of all this is a shortage.”

The situation should be more under control by the time this supplement goes to press, he predicted in December.

Dimitris Rapsomatiotis, vicepresident and managing directorof Rapsomatiotis SA, chairman ofthe Union of Exporters of Agricultural Products in Argolida and Korinthia and general secretary of the Commercial Chamber of Korinthia, explains that Thompson Seedless has taken position as the main grape cultivar grown in Greece, with re-planting to accommodate the popular variety taking place over the last seven years. He says that while Germany has traditionally taken the lion’s share of these exports, the market for Greek Thompson in the UK has been growing rapidly over the last four years.

In a bid to boost business, many growers in the north of Greece have tried to emulate Thompson’s success with other varieties. Rapsomatiotis says it is this leap of faith which has caused them problems this year: “For the last two to three years, efforts have been made to develop the cultivation of Crimson, which commercially has not performed as satisfactorily as was expected,” he explains.

CYPRUS

As FPJ detailed in its last grape supplement, the Cyprus grape scene is in massive decline, and this trend has continued unabated over the last 12 months.

Even the supply of sultanas to the UK has come to an end, and no significant sendings of Cypriot grapes have reached UK shores for at least two years, says one anonymous exporter: “The exports of Cypriot grapes have gradually slowed down to approximately 500 tonnes a year. Neighbouring countries like Egypt and Turkey are putting so much pressure on the prices that it is not possible to trade profitably. The low prices to the growers over the last few years have disappointed them, resulting in less and less cultivated vineyards,” he says.

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