With grape deals in Chile and Mexico as well as California, The Chuck Olsen Co. in Visalia, CA, is “for all intents and purposes” in the grape business year-round, according to Jeff Olsen, president.

During the Chilean season, “we bring in some product,” Olsen said. Then the company has a small grower deal in Sonora, Mexico.

In the San Joaquin Valley, the company has production in various districts from Arvin and Delano to Visalia.

In addition, “we buy and sell if we need to,” he said.

Prior to the current season, the earliest start date for grapes in the San Joaquin Valley for Pandol Bros. in Delano, CA, was June 21. That was in 2004, and this year “we expect to beat that by two to three days,” said John Pandol, director of special projects, May 27. “We are tracking for the earliest start in Arvin in our company’s history.”

He attributes the early start to “basically an accumulation of heat units.” A “short, severe winter” was followed by a warm early spring.

Customers and associates at Giant Food Stores and Martin’s Food Markets recently showed their support for local men and women serving in the armed forces by generously donating $560,194 through the store’s annual Support Our Troops campaign.

Since the inception of Support Our Troops in 2005, Giant and Martin's customers and associates have donated more than $3 million to benefit regional USOs and the Wounded Warrior Project.

“This will be our earliest season start in Hronis’ 69-year history,” said Pete Hronis, vice president of sales and marketing for Hronis Inc. in Delano, CA, a family-owned table grape growing, packing and shipping company, in a written statement to The Produce News June 4. “We are very happy to announce we will begin shipping our grapes 10 days to two weeks earlier than normal this year.”

Fresh grapes are “a big part of what Crown Jewels does in the summertime, along with melons and apples and pears and pomegranates,” said Atomic Torosian, a partner in Crown Jewels Produce LLC in Fresno, CA. “We generally do about a million and a half boxes of grapes out of California, and that number will be pretty much the same” for the 2014 season.

Being early with a crop can be a desirable thing when it hits a marketing window, but not when it comes in on top of an already glutted market. That is what happened at the start of the Central California onion deal this year, but growers were confident that it was only a temporary situation and prices would soon firm.