The Spanish table grape campaign has just started in the early areas of the Region of Murcia. The harvest has kicked off a week late this year, and despite some losses affecting the early varieties, a good quality production is expected.
"We are facing an interesting start to the season," says Gracia Fernández, who recently joined Grupo El Ciruelo's sales team. "Our harvest is starting a week late, while our biggest competitor at this time of the year, Egypt, is finishing its campaign early. Normally, the first Spanish table grapes overlap with the end of the Egyptian campaign."
"This year, the impact of the pandemic on the logistics sector and the side effects of the Suez Canal incident with the Ever Given have also caused delays in the arrival of Egyptian grapes. Therefore, we are clashing less with this origin and the market is more open. We are already seeing better sales," she says.
Although the spring has been quite rainy this year, the volume of some of the early varieties in the Region of Murcia, such as the Sugraone, hasn't dropped. "Fortunately, at El Ciruelo we invest plenty of resources in covering and protecting our crops with plastic, and thanks to this, the quality is looking good," says Cristina Gutiérrez, commercial director of El Ciruelo.
The Murcian company expects the Spanish table grape production to amount to around 60,000 tons this season, to which we must add another 30,000 tons from Brazil. El Ciruelo acquired the Brazilian company Labrunier two years ago, thus creating the largest private table grape producing group in the world. Since then, they have been working with the Brazilian harvest in April and May, followed by the Spanish harvest from June onwards, and the second Brazilian harvest in October and November, which serves as a link between Spanish grapes and those of other overseas origins.
"The two companies are being integrated with effort and plenty of enthusiasm. This year there has been a great improvement in the quality and professionalism in Brazil, which has allowed us to export more. We are taking our know-how in cultivation and marketing processes there while learning about the climatic conditions for the planting of new varieties," says Cristina Gutiérrez.
Great progress made with Candy grapes. "The consumer will come to distinguish the varieties"
In the last few years there have been great changes when it comes to seedless table grape varieties. According to El Ciruelo's commercial management, there is on-going varietal renewal.
"We have reached the peak in varietal innovation in just a few years, going from just a few varieties to a wide range in terms of harvest schedules, organoleptic qualities and color, with white, red and black grapes. Right now it is difficult to improve on what we have achieved and something really good would have to come along for big changes to happen," says Cristina. "However, there is still a lot of room for growth for Candy-type grapes, marketed under our Moments by El Ciruelo brand. There have been great new developments and a lot of movement on both the production and marketing side."
"The sector is now much more professionalized when it comes to selling table grapes, and this also applies to large-scale distributors, who are already buying grapes by the name of the different varieties; something that was unthinkable in the past. We are confident that, with time, consumers will get used to that, too, and that, as they already do with apples or tomatoes, they will know how to distinguish the taste of the different varieties and have preferences. In fact, having a year-round production cycle for some varieties (whether domestically produced or imported) is helping consumers distinguish them," say Cristina and Gracia.
The organic continues to grow
The Murcian company plans to triple its supply of organic seedless table grapes this year. It will be the third year in which the firm will market this type of grapes under its Bio Ciruelo brand.
"The truth is that last year we observed a significant upturn in the demand for organic grapes by large retail chains. It seems that this rising trend will continue in the coming years, so we will keep increasing our production. In addition, we are developing increasingly sustainable packaging, in line with the global efforts to reduce plastic use and care more for the environment," they say.
For more information:
Gracia Fernández
Grupo El Ciruelo
M: +34 680958989
T: +34 968 630 645
[email protected]
www.elciruelo.com