Columbine Vineyards in Delano, CA, which grows grapes in the San Joaquin Valley of California, both in the Arvin area and in Delano, expects a sizeable crop for the 2013 season.

“It is looking like a big year” with “lots of fruit, lots of bunches,” Sales Manager Anthony Stetson said in an interview with The Produce News. “It is too early to say on quality, but if everything comes to fruition, it will be a nice volume year.”

For Stevco Inc., which is headquartered in Los Angeles and has branch offices in Nogales, AZ, and in Coachella and Bakersfield, CA, will have an increase in acreage of both Flame seedless grapes and Sugraone green seedless grapes during the early part of the season in California’s San Joaquin Valley, according to Jared Lane, vice president of sales and marketing.

Flame seedless grapes and Sugraone green seedless grapes, the two major early-season varieties for Sundale Sales Inc. in Tulare, CA, are among the varieties in which the company will have increased volume in 2013 due to young acreage coming on line.

“We have increased acreage of both, with two new blocks coming into [fuller] production this year, both on Flames and on the Sugraones,” said President Sean Stockton. “Last year, we had first-year crop” on those vineyards, he said. “This will be the first full crop on those early acres.”

Crown Jewels Produce Co. in Fresno, CA, expects an increase in its table grape volume out of the San Joaquin Valley of California during the 2013 season as a result of additional acreage coming into the program, according to Atomic Torosian, a partner in the company.

“Crown Jewels has picked up a little bit more acreage than we had last year,” Torosian said. “We are expecting to pick, pack and ship somewhere around a million-and-a-half boxes of grapes. It should be a full season.”

It has been unusual in recent years for most grape growers in the San Joaquin Valley of California to have fruit in the market for the Fourth of July to any significant extent. That period has been served primarily by fruit from the Coachella Valley of California, or from Mexico.

But this year, some producers are expecting to begin harvesting in the San Joaquin Valley toward the end of June, early enough to have fruit in at least the western markets for the Fourth of July pull. Pandol Bros. Inc. in Delano, CA, is one of those.

“In our early-season program, we’ve got a few more Flames” this year than in 2012, Jeff Olsen, vice president of The Chuck Olsen Co. in Visalia, CA, said in an interview with The Produce News. The additional volume will come from a new grower whose fruit the company will be handling this year.

“Other than that, it is about status quo as far as the early season is concerned,” Olsen said.