italy’s table grape production has experienced marked fluctuations in recent years - primarily the result of unpredictable weather. In 2002, a severe drought caused output to fall 1.3 million tonnes from the previous year, and with quality also affected, exports were reduced by 33 per cent. In 2003, hot and dry conditions in the summer months caused a five per cent reduction in the exported table grape production.

On the assumption that weather patterns remain forgiving, it is now accepted that 2004 will be a season of recovery with production expected to rise by seven per cent. But, says Neil Denny, Hochfeld’s grape procurer, the Italian season is already running up to 10 days late. “It has been very cold in Italy and it did not begin to warm up until the beginning of June,” he says. “Fortunately grape producers did manage to escape the worst of the heavy rain that affected other countries such as Spain.”

Italian grape is not alone in experiencing a delayed start to the season. “This has been a common occurrence with most European sources and the same thing happened with Spain,” says Denny. “In Italy there have been some issues with mixed berry size but the quality is good in terms of the condition of the fruit. The sugar levels are fine, so the berry size is the only difficulty and this is probably due to the long flowering period in spring.”

In general, says Gino Peviani, head of Italian growers’ association ANEIOA, the condition of Italian grapes is good, despite bad weather earlier in the year. “Sugarone is the first of the varieties to germinate and has suffered from this season’s low temperatures,” he says. “Since 80 per cent of production is covered it has benefited from being in a good position. Both the bunched and the individual berries are in good condition with a delay in maturation of up to 10 days. Harvesting is expected from July 20-25.”

Thompson is currently in optimum condition, both as bunches and as individual berries, Peviani continues. “Some growers’ production is a little below expectations due to plentiful rainfall at the time of flowering and harvesting is expected to begin from August 20 onwards.”

At this stage production also appears to be promising for Crimson, says Peviani. “There have been no difficulties at any stages and harvesting is expected from the first week in September.”

According to some sources the global outlook for grapes, with a glut of produce and bad weather across the board, leaves much to be desired, however, Italy’s window in the UK supply calendar looks to be assured, particularly in light of difficulties elsewhere. Although weather conditions have played a part in the late arrival of Italian product, the current quality of the Spanish crop, which has been damaged by the rain, is causing a lot of problems, says Rachel Culley, grape category manager at British & Brazilian. “The added strain of a late arriving Italian crop will make it very difficult for some,” she predicts. “We deal with Waitrose so we will not have problems ourselves, but there will be others who will.”

Southern Fruit Brokers, one of the EU’s largest producers and exporters of fruit and vegetables, Italian produce, and grapes in particular have a long-established reputation. “The Italian crop is normally a good product and it does tend to be better quality than the Spanish,” says Jim Hayes, partner at SFB. “It also tends to achieve higher prices than Spanish product, so it has a welcome place in the seasonal calendar before Greek grapes begin.”

In the Italian grape sector as a whole there is an undeniable trend towards expansion - a result that has come about by the fine-tuning of the varietal mix, including a heavier focus on Black Magic and Victoria and seasonal extensions. In turn these developments are contributing to the opening of non-traditional outlets especially in Asia, the Middle East, India and Scandinavia.

British & Brazilian starts with Mystery and then goes onto Sugarone. “The Italian green seedless season is not particularly long,” says Culley. “Crimson comes along in September and then later, Italia which has a good muscat flavour because of the climate - but green seedless grapes are all that anyone wants to talk about. The market for this product has grown from a very low base to being extremely high. Seedless product has long overtaken seeded grapes and this is where the demand is in terms of both green and red product. Children, particularly, enjoy them because they are sweet and tasty and they are also convenient to eat.”

According to Dole, grapes, one of the oldest known cultivated fruits, are also the most widely grown fruit around the globe. Grapes were grown and harvested in the area now known as Iran as early as 8,000 years ago and although there are thousands of varieties of grapes grown throughout the world, all of them can be classified as either European or American. European grapes have tight skins while American varieties have loose skin or slip-skin that easily slips from the fruit when cut or bitten.

The FAS puts China as the leading consumer of grapes by far, - with a population of 1.2 billion, although these are consumers of domestically grown low-priced variety Red Globe. Turkey consumes a significant amount of its fresh market production, while Italy, the fourth largest consumer of fresh grapes was expected to consume around 50 per cent of grapes grown for fresh market consumption in 2003. Spain consumes around 65 per cent of its domestic table grape production and exports the rest, like Italy to other EU countries. In terms of volume, says the FAS, Italy was second after Chile in world trade with 18 per cent of the world market during 2002. Top export destinations include Germany, France, Poland, Belgium and Switzerland. During the off-season in 2002, Italy imported around 14,000t from foreign sources. Chile and Spain supplied the bulk at about 4,000t each.

Thompson Seedless, a variety that accounts for much of Greek production, has long been a firm favourite in the UK, and although these consumers undoubtedly prefer seedless grapes there is little room to expand the market. It is countries such as Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany that exporters looks to since demand has not yet reached a peak.

Demand for seedless is not just a trend in Europe and although Chile has now ended its grape harvest with what has been termed a reasonably good season for seedless, it experienced a more difficult time for seeded. “There was severe competition from South Africa,” says Citronas’ Rob Blok, “so it has not been easy for the Chileans.

“Seedless grapes are still gaining good ground in Europe,” Blok continues, “and other countries are fast catching up with the UK, especially in terms of white seedless which now has year-round supplies. This is why the European crop has changed from being largely seeded to seedless.”

Despite the market dominance of white grape there has been increasing speculation that red seedless grapes are gaining in popularity.

Ten years ago Italy and Greece began to move into the seedless market that was difficult at first but is now a major crop, says Blok, although Spain was the first to change. “Now there is year-round production in seedless on the continent and this is something you just would not have seen 10 years ago. Things are changing in the marketplace and although there is more of a preference for darker varieties, the first thing consumers want now is seedless produce.”

In terms of exports, the UK receives a relatively small share of Italian grapes that mainly go through Germany and France, but Peviani believes the UK market offers good opportunities to develop a good working relationship during the later seasonal period of September to November with a good quality product at competitive prices, especially in Italia and Red Globe varieties. “We believe that the restricted price and the muscat flavour of the Italia variety could contribute to the re-launch of this variety in which sales are a little static,” he says. “It is important to improve on flavour - that is a real must in this product. All our production is EurepGAP certified and our production is heavily concentrated on the development of the seedless varieties and we believe that we have notable growth prospects in the near future. We will be concentrating on both white and red grapes especially during August, September and October,” he says.

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