Total U.S. grape shipments were significantly higher in late August than year-ago levels in part due to lower prices at shipping point.
California storage grapes are above of a year ago, largely because of last year’s early August rain that wiped out a significant part of the 2023 crop, notes Bari Produce of Fresno, CA.
However, with good movement the company expects supplies to continue to tighten moving into the fall. The early season heat seemed to push a few varieties up in harvest, which also leads shippers to expect to finish a little earlier than last year.
Bari Produce expects South American imports to arrive by the middle of November, which would overlap with some growers’ late season in California.
Bari Produce usually markets grapes into early November.
USDA shipment numbers for the week of Aug. 25-31 showed total U.S. grape shipments of 4.52 million 19-pound cartons (85.87 million pounds), up 15% from the same week a year ago. California provided more than 99% of all fresh grape shipments, according to the USDA, with very light volume provided by Canada, Mexico, Italy and South Korea.
Through the end of August, season-to-date domestic shipments of central California table grapes totaled 25.4 million containers (482.6 million pounds), up 20% from the same time a year ago. Total truck shipments of California domestic grape shipments in the 2023 season were 61.5 million containers (1.17 billion pounds), according to the USDA.
Export shipments of central California grapes also were way up in 2024.
The USDA reported season to date export truck shipments central California grapes were up 42% compared with a year ago, with export air shipments up 72% and export boat shipments up 4%. Altogether, central California season to date grape export shipments of 2.64 million containers (50.2 million pounds) were up 17% from 2.25 million containers (42.9 million pounds) at the same time a year ago.