March 10 2011, 14:51 Fruit-Inform

20% decrease in South African table grape production

According to Fruit-Inform Project, market participants expect the table grape production to decrease approximately by 20% in South Africa. The main reason of this lies in heavy rains experienced in producing regions. Accordingly, this season’s prices for South African table grapes were higher than usual, while quality leaves much to be desired.

Advantage of the situation in South Africa was taken by table grape producers from Chile and Peru who managed to obtain higher prices and had no problems with distribution of their produce. Traders reported of the most affordable prices being for Peruvian table grapes.

Currently the South African table grape campaign is at its end. Grapes are actively shipped from South America. In the nearest time first shipments of table grapes from India are expected to enter the European market.

We should note that table grape price growth caused by decrease of supply from South Africa and current increase of freight costs exerts a restrictive impact on growth of demand for this produce. However, high prices for apples help partially compensate this negative for table grapes factor. At the same time, there are table grape price decrease trends recently registered at major suppliers.