Anthony Vineyards Inc. in Bakersfield, CA, will have volume increases for the fall grape deal in both its conventional and organic production, according to John Harley, vice president of sales and marketing.

The increases are mainly in red seedless varieties, he said.

With the season running a little early this year, Anthony Vineyards expected to be into several fall varieties by the first of September. “We will be into Scarlet Royals, Autumn Royals, Sweet Scarlets and Luiscos, more than likely,” by that date, Harley said.

As “one of the largest growers in the [San Joaquin] Valley of Autumn Kings, that variety of green seedless table grape “is going to be a staple for us on the back end of the season,” said Sean Stockton, president of Sundale Sales Inc. in Tulare, CA.

“We are known for our late season program,” said Louis Scattaglia, managing partner at Scattaglia Growers & Shippers LLC in Traver, CA. “We can harvest fresh grapes into December. As long as the weather cooperates, we are going to have a strong late-season grape deal.”

SGS grows, packs and ships a full lineup of table grape varieties in the central San Joaquin Valley, from early-season Flames to late-season Autumn Kings, but proprietary varieties exclusive to SGS are an increasingly important part of the company’s grape program.

Retailers often begin changing the sets of their produce departments around the first of September, switching over to fall fruit. In the process, stone fruit, which is generally regarded as a summer fruit, sometimes loses its place on the shelf.

The retailers do that because “they are so used to doing that. That is what history tells them to do,” said Doug LaCroix, a salesman at Family Tree Farms Marketing LLC in Reedley, CA.

“The end of September, we will start packing our famous ‘Holiday Seedless,’ “ said Anthony Stetson, sales manager at Columbine Vineyards in Delano, CA.

“Holiday Seedless” is a registered trademark for a patented late-season red grape variety exclusive to Columbine.

“This year’s crop looks very nice,” Stetson said Aug. 7. “It’s got good size and good bunch conformation, and volume looks to be excellent.”

In late May the crush for transportation to fill Memorial Day orders was at a fever pitch. That proved to be a harbinger of things to come as June and July saw a very tight transportation situation.

In fact, recently Chuck Thomas of Thomas Produce Sales in Nogales, AZ, told The Produce News, “In May and June, I saw some rates I’d never seen before. Trucks were getting from $8,500 to $8,800 to go to the East Coast from Nogales. I heard of some $10,000 rates from Salinas to Boston and New England. It was unbelievable.”