The grape market has become slack in the run up to Christmas following a prolonged period of tightness in supply throughout the autumn.

"Our sea freight volumes are coming in fluently now and the volumes are there for our programmes, but the market is a bit messy and disappointing at the moment," said Martin Dunnett of Capespan which is supplying South African grape into the UK market. "Brazil has come in with some late supplies of Festival, but demand is mixed. The market was tight but that's not the case anymore."

Dunnett is hopeful that when Christmas demand really strikes next week, any excess supplies in the UK market will be taken up. The South African offer is coming onto the marketplace slightly later than usual as Dunnett outlined to the Journal earlier in the season. And the good news for South African suppliers is the quality of their offer this season as the lateness in fruit development has meant very high sugar content. "The fact is at Capespan we are not overstocked because of the lateness of the season," he said. "The volumes are there for us to really get behind the product in January and launch our promotions as usual in the new year."

Meanwhile, South African stone fruit is coming into a receptive market and plums are doing particularly well as Spanish, Italian and Israeli supplies clear. "Looking historically, we are seeing some really good prices on plums, peaches, nectarines and apricots," said Dunnett. "On apricots we also have quite a bit of late season fruit still to come."

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