Murcia's seedless table grape season will finish in about a month, earlier than in other years, given the advanced stage of the harvest. The low supply from overseas in the European markets is resulting in a high demand and good prices.
"This year, our table grape season will come to a close earlier. We usually finish around November 20, but this year, if the weather is good, we could be selling the last batches on November 1," says Antonio Caballero, Manager of Frutas Torero.
Antonio Caballero at his stand in Asia Fruit Logística 2024, Hong Kong.
According to the grower and exporter, although some varieties have delivered slightly lower yields, the premature end to the season is mainly due to the early start this year. "On top of that, the hot weather during the harvest has ended up speeding up the process even more. This is something that has also happened with stone fruit," he says.
"We are having a good final stretch of the season," says Caballero. "There isn't a great supply in the markets, as no significant volumes have yet arrived from Peru or Chile, which are just starting their harvests and are focusing more on the United States, which has had some production problems at the end of the season."
"We can say that, generally speaking, we've had a very good start to this season in July, given that there was no overlap with Egypt. When there was more product available, the demand and prices slowed down a little, but now the market conditions are good again because of the shortage of grapes at destination," he says.
Frutas Torero ships its grapes mainly to European countries, especially Germany and the United Kingdom, the countries that consume the largest volumes. In these countries, it competes mainly with Italy at the moment, which is offering later varieties. "Italian exports have traditionally been dominated by grapes with seeds, but in the last four years, there has been an increase in the volumes of seedless grapes, which entails greater competition for Spain," says Caballero.
They also continue to ship to countries in the Middle East and Asia, although volumes have dropped this year both because of the conflict in the Red Sea and the good demand in Europe. "It will always be preferable to deliver the fruit to European markets, rather than to distant destinations, which bring higher risks," says the grower and exporter.
The Murcia-based company continues to increase its table grape production and to switch to different varieties. "We have replanted former stone fruit fields with grapes and sought earlier areas for stone fruit to start at the end of April and fill the gap until the end of June, when we continue with our own table grape campaign. We plan to continue increasing our table grape volumes in the coming years," says Antonio Caballero.
Frutas Torero is returning to Fruit Attraction in Madrid from October 8 to 10, where it will be welcoming visitors at stand 7E15A in Hall 7.
For more information:
Antonio Caballero Palazón
Frutas Torero
Avenida Constitución 15.
30550 Abarán, Murcia. Spain
Tel.: +34 968 451 536
[email protected]
www.frutastorero.com
www.hortofruticolatopi.com