US table grape exporters will likely find themselves scrambling for fruit to supply the first major Chinese holiday of the season, the Moon Festival, which falls relatively early this year on 12 September.
The timing of the festival has been compounded by the an unusually cool and wet spring, that has delayed the central Californian harvest by at least two weeks.
“At this point, I’d have to say that there will be very few Red Globes available for the Moon Festival this year,” said Nick Dulcich of Sunlight Marketing International. “It will likely be a seedless deal for the holiday.”
That won’t be a particularly unusual situation for exporters, furthered Pete Arellanes of Sunview Marketing, because US Red Globes have been struggling more each year in the market as China’s own production of the variety grows.
“Seedless varieties are of more interest these days,” he said.
The California Table Grape Commission (CTGC) has had an ongoing goal of expanding the industry’s market presence to new metropolitan regions within mainland China. According to Susan Day, vice president for international marketing, the commission saw progress toward that end during 2010.
“We definitely made more inroads into secondary markets in China last year,” she said.
“We also made progress in the Pearl River Delta region in cities such as Zhuhai and Dongguan, as well as initial market penetration in Chongqing, Chengdu and Xian in the north. We’re looking to expand on that progress this season.”
Ms Day pointed out that China (including Hong Kong and Macau) imported more than 6m cartons (8.62kg) of table grapes during 2010, placing it second only to Canada’s 11.1m cartons as an international destination for California. The CTGC’s promotional efforts have been largely directed at China’s rapidly expanding retail sector.
“It’s been interesting to discover that the Chinese `chain stores` actually operate with a fair amount of autonomy in the more remote regions of the country,” said Ms Day. “But that makes sense, because the consumer demographic in these emerging markets can be quite different from those on the coast where they are more developed.”
A full report on the Californian grape season will appear in the July/August edition of Asiafruit Magazine.
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