Coachella Valley table grape acreage remains stable, but mix changes
Coachella Valley table grape acreage remains stable, but mix changes
Against the backdrop of pressure from home development, high labor costs and a problematic sustained labor pool, Coachella Valley's table grape acreage maxed out some years back.
And there's no reason to suspect the situation will reverse itself.
Robert Bianco of Coachella, CA-based Anthony Vineyards said that table grape acreage in the Coachella Valley won't climb because people "can't buy land for agriculture" since it's too expensive.
Table grapes still are the top crop in the Coachella Valley, but the valley has shaken out most of its smaller players over the years to where primarily larger family farms remain. Mecca, CA-based Richard Bagdasarian Inc. is representative of the family farm with deep roots in the Coachella Valley. The company dates back to the late 1940s and was incorporated in 1952.
Housing pressures and the high price that Coachella Valley farmland can command accounted for some of the loss of table grape acreage, especially several years ago. Growth toward Oasis and Mecca in the southern Coachella Valley has been particularly pronounced, although the flurry of speculative real estate activity has abated in the past year or more.
So while there's no growth in Coachella Valley table grape acreage, grower- shippers change their varietal mix. Fading a bit in popularity is the Perlette variety, a green grape that is the first grape of the season. The variety has played out in some of the valley's older vineyards and the "production costs are the most expensive" of the valley's varieties, said Mr. Bianco of Anthony Vineyards.
The patent on Coachella-based Sun World International's Sugraone table grape variety ran out a few years ago after 17 years, and several companies in the valley now grow the variety in some volume.
Anthony Vineyards has Sugraone acreage this year, and Mecca, CA-based Tudor Ranch expects to double its production of Sugraone compared with last year. Included on the Sugraone bandwagon are Richard Bagdasarian Inc. and Coachella-based Desert Fresh.
The Sugraone variety is new this year to Coachella-based Peter Rabbit Farms. Sales Manager John Burton said that Sugraone acreage is a swap out with Perlette vines that were getting old and that the Sugraone yield "is better than Perlettes."
While last year Coachella Valley grapes didn't have the desired length of dormancy, this year's freeze in January provided added chill hours for the grapes and longer dormancy. Projections from several sources estimated that this year's table grape crop in the Coachella Valley would rebound closer to 8 million packs, a return to 2005 form when the Coachella Valley produced nearly 7.5 million packs. In that year, Mexico exported more than 17 million packs to the United States.
Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission, said that weather patterns affecting the Coachella Valley table grape crop roughly equate with what the Mexican table grape crop faces. Either a strong or weak season in the Coachella Valley generally is mirrored in Mexico.
(For more on the Coachella Valley deal, see the April 30 issue of The Produce News.)
And there's no reason to suspect the situation will reverse itself.
Robert Bianco of Coachella, CA-based Anthony Vineyards said that table grape acreage in the Coachella Valley won't climb because people "can't buy land for agriculture" since it's too expensive.
Table grapes still are the top crop in the Coachella Valley, but the valley has shaken out most of its smaller players over the years to where primarily larger family farms remain. Mecca, CA-based Richard Bagdasarian Inc. is representative of the family farm with deep roots in the Coachella Valley. The company dates back to the late 1940s and was incorporated in 1952.
Housing pressures and the high price that Coachella Valley farmland can command accounted for some of the loss of table grape acreage, especially several years ago. Growth toward Oasis and Mecca in the southern Coachella Valley has been particularly pronounced, although the flurry of speculative real estate activity has abated in the past year or more.
So while there's no growth in Coachella Valley table grape acreage, grower- shippers change their varietal mix. Fading a bit in popularity is the Perlette variety, a green grape that is the first grape of the season. The variety has played out in some of the valley's older vineyards and the "production costs are the most expensive" of the valley's varieties, said Mr. Bianco of Anthony Vineyards.
The patent on Coachella-based Sun World International's Sugraone table grape variety ran out a few years ago after 17 years, and several companies in the valley now grow the variety in some volume.
Anthony Vineyards has Sugraone acreage this year, and Mecca, CA-based Tudor Ranch expects to double its production of Sugraone compared with last year. Included on the Sugraone bandwagon are Richard Bagdasarian Inc. and Coachella-based Desert Fresh.
The Sugraone variety is new this year to Coachella-based Peter Rabbit Farms. Sales Manager John Burton said that Sugraone acreage is a swap out with Perlette vines that were getting old and that the Sugraone yield "is better than Perlettes."
While last year Coachella Valley grapes didn't have the desired length of dormancy, this year's freeze in January provided added chill hours for the grapes and longer dormancy. Projections from several sources estimated that this year's table grape crop in the Coachella Valley would rebound closer to 8 million packs, a return to 2005 form when the Coachella Valley produced nearly 7.5 million packs. In that year, Mexico exported more than 17 million packs to the United States.
Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission, said that weather patterns affecting the Coachella Valley table grape crop roughly equate with what the Mexican table grape crop faces. Either a strong or weak season in the Coachella Valley generally is mirrored in Mexico.
(For more on the Coachella Valley deal, see the April 30 issue of The Produce News.)
