While in Maharashtra, the largest grape producing and exporting state they are speaking of a bumper production and record exports.
Nagesh Shetty from Deccan Produce says the early harvest is going well and is not down by 25%. These early grapes are meant for the domestic market and small fluctuations in quantities may be quite normal as the overall quantities being discussed are quite low.
India will only start to export grapes from January onward, its still early to comment on the how the season will go, but Mr Shetty expects it be a good season.
“Conditions have been good in the growing regions for export grapes, we expect the volumes to be similar to last year.”
Deccan Produce will export to the traditional markets such as Europe and Russia but will also send grapes to East Asia and some small volumes to China.
“We are not sure how the export to China will go, this is a very new market and the tastes of Chinese consumers tend towards very large berries. We will send coloured grapes in small quantities, we believe we can fill a gap left by the trade tariff wars being imposed by the US and Chinese governments.”
