With a legacy that dates back more than a century, the Chuck Olsen Co. Inc., based in Visalia, CA, has very deep roots in the California grape industry.

Jeff Olsen, the current president of the company and son of the company namesake, said his great-grandfather began farming in the Orange Cove area of the San Joaquin Valley in 1910. The family has been growing and shipping grapes ever since.  Jeff Olsen

The current firm was started in 1994 by Chuck Olsen as a grower-shipper and it has continued on that path ever since.  Jeff said “status quo” is an apt definition for the operation this year as its staff and supplies are about the same as they were a year ago.  “We have a few more Autumn Kings and Summer Royals but we are pretty much the same as we have been.”

Surveying this season, Olsen expects another very good year.  He said fresh grape volume out of the San Joaquin Valley has been very good the past two years with total cartons topping the 110 million figure both seasons, which he called “record-breakers.”

Typically, he said, the San Joaquin Valley would send about 90 million cartons to the marketplace.  Olsen believes this year will be just as good as the past two because new, higher-yielding varieties are the order of the day.  “In the old days with the older varieties we would get 700-900 boxes per acre.  Now with the new varieties and the trellis systems, we are seeing 1,200, 1,500 even 2,000 boxes to the acre.”

Though one might think California’s well-publicized drought has taken its toll, Olsen said it has not resulted in reduced volume.  He noted that as a permanent crop, grapes do get the water they need.  Growers might fallow row crop land but they do everything in their power to find water for the permanent crops such as a grape vineyard.  “It is more expensive but everybody is doing everything they can to get through this.”

That might mean digging a well a bit deeper, installing a new one or pumping water from one place to the next.   In any event, the fruit is on the vines and Olsen is predicting a very good season.  “The last two years we have had record crops and decent prices,” he said.  “The retailers have been very good promoting grapes and moving the fruit.  I expect the same this year.”

He expects the season to last through November and into December, “barring any major rain situations…which we are praying we get.”

Olsen said at the end of the season, Peru typically comes into the United States with some grapes in mid- to late November followed by Chile in early December. “But Chile could be earlier. We are earlier this year and that usually means that Chile will be also.”