Excellent quality and moderate volume seen on San Joaquin Valley grapes
Excellent quality and moderate volume seen on San Joaquin Valley grapes
After a difficult start during May and June in the Coachella Valley, the California grape season appeared in July to be showing promise for much improvement as the harvest got underway in the San Joaquin Valley.
It did seem to be a mixed bag, as growers cited a wide range of conditions and expectations. Most growers seemed to expect moderate volume, steady supplies and excellent quality on most varieties.
The strongest consensus was that the early fruit, from Arvin north, was showing exceptional quality and generally good size, as well as good color on colored fruit.
The harvest in the San Joaquin Valley, which at one time was expected to be as much as two to three weeks later than normal, actually got underway only three or four days later than normal. Most growers interviewed by The Produce News expressed a high level of optimism that supplies would be steady and that volumes and prices would be amenable to retail promotions throughout the rest of the season.
But there were concerns, one of them being an extreme heat wave in the valley beginning about mid-July. As of July 22, the Acuweather forecast showed daily high temperatures between 112 and 103 through July 29 in the Fresno area before dipping back into the high 90s.
The crop is "better-than-average quality" but "somewhat lighter" than average, especially on the Autumn Royal, according to Jack Breech of Pandol Bros. Inc. in Delano, CA.
Following disappointingly low yields for the spring grape deals in Coachella and in Hermosillo and Caborca, Mexico, the picture in the San Joaquin Valley was looking much brighter.
"We're going from a period of scarcity [into] a much better balance between supply and demand," Mr. Breech said. "We are going to get the grapes down in price to where we can get some movement through the stores."
"Fruit quality is superb," said Shaun Ricks of Pacific International Marketing in Cutler, CA. Flames were showing full color. "It is gorgeous," he said.
But PIM's Flame vineyards in Arvin proved to have a lighter set than expected, by about 20 percent, and therefore finished "about four days earlier than we had hoped." He thinks a similar thing could occur in Delano but expects the situation to improve further north. Thompsons and Princess could similarly be on the light side in the southern districts, he said.
"I am trusting we get a break in the weather," Mr. Ricks said July 14. "Last year we had three weeks of 105-plus, and that didn't work in our favor. & The vines are strong. We are good farmers, you know, as an industry. We grow good strong vines, and they can withstand some heat," but only so much.
If the heat had come earlier when the grapes were not as far along, it would have been more of a problem, Robert Rocha of P-R Farms in Clovis, CA, noted July 19. "At this point, [the fruit] seems to be all right."
"We're coming off of a very interesting early season," said Rick Paul of Sun World International LLC in Bakersfield, CA. "Last year, between Coachella and Mexico, the crop into North America was about 23 million boxes." This year, it came out closer to 16 million or 17 million. Although pricing in May started "below expectations," he said, when it became evident that the crops were short, "a tremendous adjustment was made."
Retail prices, as a result, were high, Mr. Paul said, and that "was really necessary to some degree to keep the product in the stores, because at normal pricing, people would have just been constantly running out. So supply and demand worked pretty well."
Mr. Paul said he does not recall ever before starting the harvest in the San Joaquin Valley "in a situation where retail prices were so high."
With volumes now increasing, he said, prices were going through the downward adjustments in July that usually occurred in early June.
The fruit that Ballantine Produce in Dinuba, CA, was harvesting in the Arvin district as of July 10 looked good, with good color and size and "a nice snap to it," said Ballantine's Steve Ryan. "Certainly we expect a much better supply situation than we came through out of Mexico and the desert. ... The continuity of supply will be there from now on all the way through the summer months, and the pricing will come down."
Thus far, "Quality is exceptional." Timing, once thought to be almost three weeks late for the company's vineyards, has "tremendously condensed itself," he continued. "Over all, we are probably looking at the rest of the season at most being only a few days off from the previous year."
"I don't know if it is just the extremely warm weather" that brought the crop on earlier than anticipated, said Mike Binn of Columbine Vineyards in Delano. But Columbine's first Flames out of Arvin started close to normal. Due to the cold, wet spring, "we were not looking at starting Arvin 'til somewhere around the 15th of July," but it was a week earlier than that.
"We have an excellent crop of Flames" in Arvin, but "Autumn Royals look extremely light," he said.
Nick Dulcich of Jakov P. Dulcich & Sons/Sunlight International Sales in Delano expects this year's crop to be off a good 20 percent. "We are very light in Autumn Royals. Our Crimson crop is off. Our Thompson crop is off," he said. "I think the late deal is going to have some challenges as far as having any volume to it. But what is out there is going to be good quality because there is less fruit on the vine."
Jon Zaninovich of Jasmine Vineyards estimated that the crop might be off by 15 percent for the whole industry. "It's very spotty," he said. Some vineyards have a normal to large crop, while others are light."
The expectation that Thompsons will be a little light and Autumn Royals will be very light seemed to be fairly widespread throughout the industry. But there were exceptions. Some growers expect good crops of Thompsons, and at least one grower expects to have a good Autumn Royal crop, while another said he has some Autumn Royal vineyards with full crops and others with almost nothing.
It is definitely a mixed bag.
John Harley of Anthony Vineyards in Bakersfield noted that with the number of new Autumn Royal vineyards coming into production this year around the industry, there still could be as much volume as last year even with a much lighter set. "As an industry, I think we will have plenty of Autumn Royals to sell and to promote and export," he said.
Jim Pandol of Pandol Associates Marketing in Delano noted that while the Autumn Royal crop may be down dramatically from a year ago, last year's crop was huge. The crop this year could be half of the 2005 crop and still be perhaps 80 percent of a normal crop, he said.
(For more on the California grape deal, see the July 31 issue of The Produce News.)
It did seem to be a mixed bag, as growers cited a wide range of conditions and expectations. Most growers seemed to expect moderate volume, steady supplies and excellent quality on most varieties.
The strongest consensus was that the early fruit, from Arvin north, was showing exceptional quality and generally good size, as well as good color on colored fruit.
The harvest in the San Joaquin Valley, which at one time was expected to be as much as two to three weeks later than normal, actually got underway only three or four days later than normal. Most growers interviewed by The Produce News expressed a high level of optimism that supplies would be steady and that volumes and prices would be amenable to retail promotions throughout the rest of the season.
But there were concerns, one of them being an extreme heat wave in the valley beginning about mid-July. As of July 22, the Acuweather forecast showed daily high temperatures between 112 and 103 through July 29 in the Fresno area before dipping back into the high 90s.
The crop is "better-than-average quality" but "somewhat lighter" than average, especially on the Autumn Royal, according to Jack Breech of Pandol Bros. Inc. in Delano, CA.
Following disappointingly low yields for the spring grape deals in Coachella and in Hermosillo and Caborca, Mexico, the picture in the San Joaquin Valley was looking much brighter.
"We're going from a period of scarcity [into] a much better balance between supply and demand," Mr. Breech said. "We are going to get the grapes down in price to where we can get some movement through the stores."
"Fruit quality is superb," said Shaun Ricks of Pacific International Marketing in Cutler, CA. Flames were showing full color. "It is gorgeous," he said.
But PIM's Flame vineyards in Arvin proved to have a lighter set than expected, by about 20 percent, and therefore finished "about four days earlier than we had hoped." He thinks a similar thing could occur in Delano but expects the situation to improve further north. Thompsons and Princess could similarly be on the light side in the southern districts, he said.
"I am trusting we get a break in the weather," Mr. Ricks said July 14. "Last year we had three weeks of 105-plus, and that didn't work in our favor. & The vines are strong. We are good farmers, you know, as an industry. We grow good strong vines, and they can withstand some heat," but only so much.
If the heat had come earlier when the grapes were not as far along, it would have been more of a problem, Robert Rocha of P-R Farms in Clovis, CA, noted July 19. "At this point, [the fruit] seems to be all right."
"We're coming off of a very interesting early season," said Rick Paul of Sun World International LLC in Bakersfield, CA. "Last year, between Coachella and Mexico, the crop into North America was about 23 million boxes." This year, it came out closer to 16 million or 17 million. Although pricing in May started "below expectations," he said, when it became evident that the crops were short, "a tremendous adjustment was made."
Retail prices, as a result, were high, Mr. Paul said, and that "was really necessary to some degree to keep the product in the stores, because at normal pricing, people would have just been constantly running out. So supply and demand worked pretty well."
Mr. Paul said he does not recall ever before starting the harvest in the San Joaquin Valley "in a situation where retail prices were so high."
With volumes now increasing, he said, prices were going through the downward adjustments in July that usually occurred in early June.
The fruit that Ballantine Produce in Dinuba, CA, was harvesting in the Arvin district as of July 10 looked good, with good color and size and "a nice snap to it," said Ballantine's Steve Ryan. "Certainly we expect a much better supply situation than we came through out of Mexico and the desert. ... The continuity of supply will be there from now on all the way through the summer months, and the pricing will come down."
Thus far, "Quality is exceptional." Timing, once thought to be almost three weeks late for the company's vineyards, has "tremendously condensed itself," he continued. "Over all, we are probably looking at the rest of the season at most being only a few days off from the previous year."
"I don't know if it is just the extremely warm weather" that brought the crop on earlier than anticipated, said Mike Binn of Columbine Vineyards in Delano. But Columbine's first Flames out of Arvin started close to normal. Due to the cold, wet spring, "we were not looking at starting Arvin 'til somewhere around the 15th of July," but it was a week earlier than that.
"We have an excellent crop of Flames" in Arvin, but "Autumn Royals look extremely light," he said.
Nick Dulcich of Jakov P. Dulcich & Sons/Sunlight International Sales in Delano expects this year's crop to be off a good 20 percent. "We are very light in Autumn Royals. Our Crimson crop is off. Our Thompson crop is off," he said. "I think the late deal is going to have some challenges as far as having any volume to it. But what is out there is going to be good quality because there is less fruit on the vine."
Jon Zaninovich of Jasmine Vineyards estimated that the crop might be off by 15 percent for the whole industry. "It's very spotty," he said. Some vineyards have a normal to large crop, while others are light."
The expectation that Thompsons will be a little light and Autumn Royals will be very light seemed to be fairly widespread throughout the industry. But there were exceptions. Some growers expect good crops of Thompsons, and at least one grower expects to have a good Autumn Royal crop, while another said he has some Autumn Royal vineyards with full crops and others with almost nothing.
It is definitely a mixed bag.
John Harley of Anthony Vineyards in Bakersfield noted that with the number of new Autumn Royal vineyards coming into production this year around the industry, there still could be as much volume as last year even with a much lighter set. "As an industry, I think we will have plenty of Autumn Royals to sell and to promote and export," he said.
Jim Pandol of Pandol Associates Marketing in Delano noted that while the Autumn Royal crop may be down dramatically from a year ago, last year's crop was huge. The crop this year could be half of the 2005 crop and still be perhaps 80 percent of a normal crop, he said.
(For more on the California grape deal, see the July 31 issue of The Produce News.)
