The Californian table grape industry is grappling with its third year of drought, leading some growers to change over to high-yielding varieties in order to keep profits up.
With the first fruit coming off the Coachella Valley vines in late April, picking has been running at least two weeks ahead of last year and by the end of June, both Coachella and Mexican harvests were winding down, with production in San Joaquin Valley rapidly gaining momentum.
This season, San Joaquin table grape shipments reached 700,000 carton (8.62kg) in the week ending 28 June, compared to just 52,000 cartons for the same period in 2013.
In spite of high sugar levels, the San Joaquin season struggled to get underway for Flame Seedless grapes, which were resisting coming to full colour. Vineyards south of Bakersfield revealed the vast majority of bunches has reached only 75 per cent colour in the last week of June, with a significant percentage having virtually no colour at all
“In order to get any kind of quantity of Flames, the shippers were requiring you to take a minimum percentage of Sugraones as well,” said Todd Bassett, who operates a commercial inspection service specialising in table grapes.
Nevertheless Bassett says the overall fruit quality of the San Joaquin crop is shaping up to be strong, with good bunch confirmation, decent berry sizing and high sugar levels.
Varietal shift
Water issues, labour shortages and escalating energy prices are seeing the demise of Thompson Seedless in favour of Autumn King – which has nearly twice the carton yield per acre. Even acreage of Sugraone, which still has little competition as an early-season white variety, may be one the wane with reports as much as 1m carton equivalents have been taken out of production since the end of last season.
Coloration is also a key factor driving a change in varieties. The mid-season Crimson Seedless, which, according to the USDA, has the second-highest acreage in the state, is losing ground to better colouring varieties such as Scarlet Royal, Vintage Red and Sweet Celebration.
Plantings of Red Globe – the traditional favourite of export markets – has dropped in recent years as consumers in developing economies gravitate to seedless varieties.
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