An unexpected and hour-long hailstorm that hit India’s table-grape-growing region Nashik on Sunday will not affect Indian export volumes to Europe, according to Indian grape export coordinator Shirish Kothare.

“It’s not a major setback and will not really affect exports,” he told Fruitnet. 'There are patches that are worse affected than others. But overall, volumes to Europe will be unaffected.'

Nitin Agrawal of leading exporter Euro Fruits also said Euro Fruits production totally escaped damage. “The area which is affected is more for domestic grapes,” he told Fruitnet. “Fortunately not a single Euro Fruits farmer is in that zone. Very lucky.”

According to Indian press reports, hail the size of ice-cubes destroyed grape crops worth Rs60 crore across 5,000 acres in the northeastern part of the region. The hail also damaged wheat and vegetable crops.