The Californian grape season out of the San Joaquin Valley got underway earlier this month with the first shipments of Flame Seedless from the Bakersfield area.
The fact fruit maturity was sufficient to pick at the beginning of the month indicates that 2012 is likely to be very different from the last two seasons, which were plagued by unusually cool, wet weather that delayed the start of the harvest in the valley by two weeks.
“The [San Joaquin] valley deal is off to a spectacular start,” said Todd Bassett, who inspects table grape quality on behalf of domestic and international clients. “The fruit this year is clean and hard with great colour, and sugar levels are off the charts on just about all the early lots being picked. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such size on Flame Seedless and Sugraone. It’s simply one of the best starts to the deal that I can remember.”
The weather leading up to the season had been almost perfect in the San Joaquin Valley, added Shawn Caldwell of Columbine Vineyards. “So far we’re seeing none of the mildew issues we experienced last season. If the trend continues, it should mean good things for export markets.”
One of the questions at the beginning of each table grape season in the San Joaquin Valley is how much fruit remains in inventory or is yet to be harvested from the Coachella Valley and Mexico.
“The transition between the desert [growing areas] and the San Joaquin couldn’t have been better this year,” said John Harley of Anthony Vineyards. “We finished shipping red grapes in Coachella on one day and started virtually the next in Arvin. Same with white grapes. But the best thing about the San Joaquin fruit this year is the quality. It’s exceptional. If our industry does the right thing by this fruit and waits for the right sugar levels it could be smooth sailing from here on - barring some kind of weather event, of course.”
Bassett agreed it was still early in the deal and the weather was the greatest unknown factor. With any sort of cooperation from Mother Nature, however, indications are that the California industry could experience a record volume year, and the California Table Grape Commission (CTGC) has estimated pack out could exceed 101m cartons (8.6kg) during 2012.
To keep the export ball rolling, the CTGC has a variety of promotions planned across Asia this season.
“Early-season promotions have been ongoing since May under the ‘Grapes from California’ brand,” explained Susan Day, vice president of international marketing for the CTGC.
Day said that the CTGC will once again use display contests and dispense consumer information at the retail level while launching programs targeting the South East Asia food service sector.
