
Historically, the South African grapes (35 day transit) were the only organic grapes to hit the U.S. shores during this period, but now Peru offers a great alternative (less than 3 weeks transit).
According to Holzman, “the U.S. fumigates grapes from Chile, the main supplier of winter grapes, so acquiring organic grapes has been a project of mine for many years. I actually helped start a bio-pesticide business in Brazil for the purpose of developing an organic grape supply. Unfortunately, there were too many issues in Brazil so I went to Peru to continue the search; as the U.S. was opening its doors to Peru it looked like the right step.”
Pacific Organic is happy to report strong arrivals on both coasts, with 30,000-35,000 4.5k cases available to ship through mid-March.