U.S.-based grape company Pandol Brothers believes the transition from Californian to Southern Hemisphere fruit will occur earlier this year, as the industry shifts attention away from tropical countries like Brazil.

The company's special projects director John Pandol said consumer desire for the freshest produce possible would likely lead retailers to import from the likes of Chile and Peru a few weeks sooner than normal.

"I would expect the retail transition from California to Southern Hemisphere to be a little earlier this year," Pandol told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"Traditionally it's been in the first half of December but in the last three years it's pushed back to really the end of December and even into January. I think we'll start seeing people transition in the first half of December.

"You'll have a whole range though – certainly some folks will hold on to California until the middle of January, but I would expect on average most retailers will change over earlier."

Pandol said Californian growers could harvest until around the first freeze, which typically occurred around the end of November or early December.

Following harvest the fruit can be stored for up to two or three months without significant effects on appearance, but Pandol said this was not a good idea as the taste noticeably deteriorated.

"It's certainly possible to store grapes for months and months, but we always see a preference in the market for fresher grapes to drive out older grapes.

"We kid ourselves that we can store them for 120 days, but they're not the same. The question is not whether you can, but whether you should," he said.

Pandol also said there was a silver lining to the current state-wide drought, as the lack of rain meant growers had been able to harvest their crops later over the last couple of years and stay in the market longer.

"I think that's one of the reasons it's pushed back. I think if next year has a normal type of weather it will be difficult to go as long with the numbers that we've done the last two or three years," he said.

"People tend to think in the last two or three years California has picked later simply because it could."

No need for Brazil

To supply the U.S. market over winter importers generally rely on South America, and Pandol said preferences as to which specific countries to buy from had changed significantly over the last few years.

U.S. importers had previously anticipated Brazil would be a major grape supplier during the Northern Hemisphere winter, but trade has now declined, mainly for reasons relating to the fruit quality from the tropical country.

"Really it's kind of interesting if we look at a longer perspective. Five years ago everyone was talking about Brazil and really it's like Brazil is gone and nobody misses it. It was kind of an interesting little experiment," he said.

"Grapes in these very, shall we say, tropical climates that don't have hot and cold just never seem to produce the flavor that you get in the natural environment. I think there is a preference to grapes that come from the more Mediterranean climates versus the tropical climates."

Pandol added that Brazilian grapes were often harvested around September and stored until later on in the year when they would then be shipped to the U.S., but now Californian growers had more late varieties they found they were in a similar position and felt no need to import such large volumes.

Peruvian producers are starting to grow more seedless varieties in order to boost their trade with the U.S., while many Chilean companies are replanting their vineyards and trying to ascertain the best cultivars for the future.

"Peruvians are doing better with the seedless varieties, so they are increasingly looking at the U.S, and the north of Chile is kind of battling with how to replant the area," Pandol said.

"Much of it was planted in the 1980s and 1990s and now they're looking at redeveloping it and trying to figure out which varieties to plant."

Grape varieties 'like cable TV'

It is likely going to be a challenge for the Chilean growers to work out which would be the best varieties to grow, given the sheer abundance of them cropping up on the market.

Leading Brazilian grape producer Grupo JD recently said it was breeding close to 100 new cultivars, with 14 having entered commercial production last year.

Pandol said that it was relatively rare for these new cultivars to gain traction with consumers, and unless they excelled in taste and appearance they were unlikely to do well.

"At the end of the day it's about the characteristics - if it's big and it's bright and it tastes good, whether that's old or new it's kind of indifferent," he said.

"And we're actually seeing in some of the newer varieties maybe they taste good but they don't look good, or they look good and they taste rather flat. It's kind of like cable TV - 300 channels and nothing's on.

"We are however seeing a few cases like the Sugar Crunch that had the combination of taste, size and texture. It lit people up."

Pandol also criticized the large number of grape breeding programs in California, saying companies were putting far too much emphasis on finding new varieties.

"In a way it's almost kind of dissappointing. There's a lot of soul-searching now - there too many genetics programs pushing too hard to get their products out," he said.

"Between the private programs and the public programs there must be 10 genetics programs here in California, all putting out varieties."

Photo: www.shutterstock.com

www.freshfruitportal.com