California table grape season finished on a high note

Overview of table grapes from California in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on January 3, 2024.

California table grape growers lost a lot of fruit this past season due to a hurricane that hit the state in the midst of harvest. Fruit that was mature at the time the hurricane hit, was affected most and much of it rotted away. “In the Maricopa region in the southern part of the state, we lost about 70 to 80 percent of our fruit,” says Nick Dulcich with Pretty Lady Vineyards. However, further up north, there was less rainfall, and the fruit wasn’t mature yet when the hurricane hit, so there was less impact. “In the Delano region for instance, the Autumn King variety ended up being okay as the fruit was still immature when the storm hit.”

When the majority of grapes in the southern part of the state got wiped out, the market was empty all of a sudden. “As a result, growers in the Delano area started picking early as we had nowhere else to pick.” Although that fruit was okay, there was still a lot of cleaning to do and as a result, not more than 30,000 packages/day were picked at the peak. “This compares to 70,000 to 90,000 packages that were picked daily during last year’s peak,” shared Dulcich.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Peru shipped early

As a result of reduced California supply, the fruit moved well, and prices were good. “However, around the middle of November, things started to slow down, and the market became weaker as table grapes from Peru had started to enter the US.” Due to California’s short supply, Peru started shipping early. In addition, Peru was also faced with weather issues and decided to ship its table grapes to the US instead of Asia as US demand was strong. “However, Peruvian grapes lacked quality as the stems were turning brown and fruit was not well sized. Bad weather had impacted the quality, and the fruit didn’t have the freshness effect it had in the past,” said Dulcich. “As a result, the business boomeranged back to California.”

Although at first it seemed like things were going bad for California growers, business picked up until early December, when the season finished. “At the end, demand for California table grapes exceeded supply and we finished well.” Pretty Lady Vineyards picked their last fruit late November and finished shipping December 11. Most growers were done around that time, which was about a month early. “All in all, the season ended on a high note and the earlier you were out, the better off you were due to fewer rejections.”

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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