A strong window of opportunity has flung open in the UK and European markets for California grapes this year as key regional suppliers face production setbacks, according to John Kreick of major US grower-packer-exporter Pandol Brothers.
“Spain has had some rain which hurt their crop while Italy’s season is running two or three weeks ahead of schedule so they’ve run out of fruit,” Mr Kreick told Fruitnet.com at the recent PMA Fresh Summit in Anaheim. “As a result, we’re hitting a gap in the market and we have the fruit to fill it. UK demand has just skyrocketed and we expect the harvest floodgates to open next week.”
Crimson Seedless and Autumn Royal are two of the key varieties being shipped, according to Mr Kreick, who anticipates a major upturn in the industry’s exports to both the UK and Ireland, with demand set to remain strong through Christmas.
Pandol is particularly well positioned to capitalize on the window of opportunity because of its focus on food safety, he noted. “It’s tougher to meet standards in the UK market in terms of residues and so on – there’s a limited number of companies that can do that,” Mr Kreick said. “Food safety’s becoming a bigger issue all the time and our company is at the forefront here. One of our managers, Andrew J Pandol, has recently been named food safety manager for Pandol Brothers. His responsibility is to oversee our food safety programme.”
Andrew Brown, the California Table Grape Commission’s UK representative,
told Fruitnet.com the industry was conducting more promotions with the major retail groups in the UK this year, including point-of-sale materials, in-store samplings and on-pack promotional activities. “We’ll have a bigger presence in the UK market this year and this reflects the larger availability of California grapes over a longer period,” said Mr Brown. “There’s a lot of new interest in California grapes.”
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