“I think we’ve been fortunate in California to have a really moderate summer, especially compared to where we were last year, where we had a significant number of days, 20 to 30 days, consistently over 100 degrees,” said Ian LeMay, president and CEO of the California Table Grape Commission.

Other than several days in the second week of August, temperature have been moderate, which has allowed grapes to mature to a “really great point,” LeMay said Aug. 11.

With back-to-school and Labor Day promotions, California grape marketers are looking to spark demand, which has been lagging in the first six weeks of the San Joaquin Valley grape season, which started the last week of June.

“We see our retail partners really promoting grapes in a significant fashion from right now, August, all the way through the fall and winter holidays,” LeMay said. “On an annual basis, about two-thirds of the California table grape crop INALis harvested after Labor Day.”

That means significant volumes will be available throughout the fall and just beyond Christmas.

“We encourage our retail partners to make sure that those promotions mirror when those volumes are available,” he said. “We’ve got great harvests happening in vineyards right now, and that will continue all the way through November, and we’ll have promotable volume all the way through December.”

LeMay said the “hope and expectation” is that the crop holds onto the current quality and sweetness to help boost a steady demand through the end of the deal.

“If the weather holds, California growers will be harvesting definitely through Thanksgiving and most likely into the first week of December, which means we’ll have promotable volumes through December and possibly into January, which is fantastic,” LeMay said.

To meet with southeast U.S. buyers, the commission will have a booth at the Southeast Produce Council’s Southern Innovations, Sept. 10-13, in Charlotte, NC. The California Table Grape Commission has custom programs for 21 export countries; grapes began arriving in some countries in early August reaching markets across the Pacific Ocean.

LeMay said the California Table Grape Commission representatives will be at Asia Fruit Logistica Sept. 3-5 in Hong Kong. Before that, commission members will meet with buyers in Australia and New Zealand.

Closer to home, LeMay met with buyers and wholesalers in Mexico in May. Mexico is the second-largest buyer of U.S. grapes, behind Canada. Despite rocky relations in recent months on U.S. trade issues, LeMay said exports to Mexico and Canada are currently in the normal range.

“We’ve been working intimately with our retail partners in those two countries to make sure that we understand where consumer demand is, and we’re trying to continue to convey to both the retailer and consumer how important their markets are to California table grape growers,” LeMay said. “Also, we’re proud that we’re able to deliver such a high-quality, consistent product to them as well.”

LeMay said the California table grape industry is on track to top last season’s 91.5 19-pound box equivalents.