The off-season campaign has become tough for Spanish grape importers. With very limited volumes and doubts about the quality, the high prices are slowing down consumption. The Spanish production won't arrive until June.
"We didn't have any problems while the South African season was still on-going, but now the off-season has become really tough, mainly because Chile, on which we usually rely at this time of the year, has been shipping more and more to the United States, to the detriment of the European market, as the prices paid by the U.S. are much higher. Furthermore, Chileans are increasing their direct exports to the UK without going through the port of Rotterdam," explains Miriam Cutillas, of Uvasdoce.
Red seedless grapes stand at exorbitant prices right now, because South Africa is virtually finished and Chile and Peru are shipping very few grapes to Europe. Red seedless grapes cost between 2.90 and 3.30 Euro per kilo. "It seems that more volumes will start arriving from these countries next week," she says.
Regarding white grapes with seeds, the most traditionally consumed in Spain, the grape specialist affirms that prices are even higher than those of seedless grapes. "Chile has no white grapes with seeds and South Africa is barely exporting any. There is not a lot of fruit on the market and it costs about 3.00 Euro per kilo, while white seedless grapes stand at 2.70 Euro per kilo. India is shipping stable volumes of white seedless grapes, although the quality is not very good for the Spanish market in terms of colour and calibres," she points out.
