South African grape producers are facing further difficulties this season with volumes now expected to fall by around 10 to 20 per cent.
Producers are keen to stress there is enough product to cover retail commitments however.
One supplier said: “We don’t think there will be any shortage of volume to meet the retailers’ planned needs, but supplies just won’t be plentiful. We did expect a lot of fruit this year, but climactically it just hasn’t happened.”
While the crop was late to develop this season, producers had expected volumes to be good.
Those expectations are beginning to fade, with total exports expected to be down by around 7 million to 8m cartons on last years shipping of 53m.
Red seedless has been particularly affected, said one exporter: “Red seedless has not developed as we had hoped, the colour development has been late and not as good so export volumes are going to be down.
“It’s very frustrating because at the moment demand for red seedless is showing considerable growth.”
Fears of a pre-Christmas price war proved unfounded however, despite Morrisons dropping its price to £2.49 a kg at a time when volumes were looking increasingly tight.
“Morrisons jumped over everybody else, but they could afford to do that because they didn’t need the same volumes as the others. The situation seems to have settled down now,” said a supplier.
The other major multiples have now followed Morrisons lead, with Tesco heading the pack down to £2.18 a kg. Sainsbury’s is expected to match that price and Asda is selling at £2.48 a kg.
