Divine Flavor Shares Update on Sonora Grape Season; Carlos Bon Details
From
| 8 June 2023
Overview of grapes from Mexico in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on June 5, 2023.
NOGALES, AZ – This past winter brought many regions across North and Central America cooler-than-normal temperatures which had a domino effect, leading to delays across the industry. Divine Flavor is one grower working hard to overcome these hurdles, and its perseverance has paid off as its Mexican table grape season is bouncing back to normal production in the month of June.
“We’re finally seeing grape supplies come back to normal,” said Carlos Bon, Vice President of Sales for Divine Flavor. “The pipeline was so dry these past few weeks, which made it difficult to get shelves back in stock with fruit, but grape production is quickly stabilizing. We’re in good shape on greens as most of the early varieties are back online, and we’ll be there soon with the reds too.”
Divine Flavor’s current production is coming from the northern and coastal districts of Sonora, Mexico, a release explained. Volumes are returning to normal, with most early green varieties already stabilized, and reds a few days behind them.
As Bon explained, June typically marks a time of the season when early varietal production is in full swing, but compared to the 2022 season, volume is down 73 percent from this time last year.
Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)
“The late start to the Sonora grape deal and lack of volume put a lot of pressure on all of us, but things are turning around, and we’ll be in a position to do big promotions at the end of this month throughout July,” added Bon.
Back in March, it was estimated that Sonora would produce over 21.5 million boxes. Now, this number is looking to be roughly 20 million in total. Flame seedless, which accounts for a large percentage of Sonoran grape acreage, is experiencing smaller yields and more grape bunches to fill 18 lb retail boxes.
“Typically, it takes around 26 bunches to fill a box. This year, yields are producing smaller berries, and grape growers are needing around 38 bunches,” explained Bon.
To read more about Divine Flavor’s Sonoran table grape production, click here.
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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