Due to lower temperatures in India, it’s more difficult to find grapes of higher brix levels at this point in the season, says Sagar Tikyani, owner of Indian grape exporter Dilip Agro: “The grape season in India has been okay, but nothing special. Not really good, but not really bad either. Finding grapes of higher brix levels has been a challenge in general. Because the fields did not receive the heat and sunlight that they should have gotten. Both January and February have been relatively colder months, and this lower temperature did affect the color and sugar contents of the grapes.”
Dilip Agro mostly exports its grapes to Asian and Gulf countries, Tikyani explains. “Our main focus is on Asia and countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. We try to think from the customer's perspective, because ultimately their company should be making money to get us repeat orders. Our sole focus as of now, is to get genuine customers. Therefore, visiting new countries and meeting customers is something we are putting our energy and effort into.”
Due to several factors, the prices for the grapes from India are higher than they were last season, Tikyani states: “The prices are upward trending, which may make Indian grapes uncompetitive this season. Due to rains in November, we’re not expecting much harvest after the point of mid-March. Also, the sales in the domestic market have suddenly picked up in the last few days, which has increased the demand and hence the prices for all varieties increased even further.”
The production levels of newer varieties is increasing, which means the Indian grape industry should have a solid future ahead of it. “Despite the earlier mentioned factors, Indian grapes continue to do better than they did in the previous year. The whole ecosystem is continuously evolving, with new varieties coming each year. On top of that we see more volumes of new varieties every year, especially the Super Sonaka (SSN) green seedless volumes have increased drastically in the last three years,” Tikyani concludes.
For more information:
Sagar Tikyani
Dilip Agro
Tel: +91 704 584 2844
Email: [email protected]
https://www.dilipagro.com