While it has not see the explosive trade growth as some other popular fruits like blueberries, mandarins and avocados, global table grape imports have been rising at a steady pace over recent years.
The Grape Reporter pulled data from the International Trade Center to get a sense of how annual import volumes into the world's top ten markets have been evolving over the last decade. The data has been presented below in an interactive graph so you can see the specific figures for the markets in any year.
The United States is by far the biggest import market, according to the data, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, mainland China, Hong Kong, Canada, Russia, France, and Indonesia.
Worldwide, table grape imports between 2010 and 2020 rose by 40 percent from $7.1 billion to $9.9 billion. To put that in context, that growth rate is a little more than half as much as the total fruit and nut category, which rose by 67 percent over the same period to $140 billion.
In table grapes, the largest single import market by far is the United States. After experiencing a drop in 2011 to $1.2 billion following a strong previous year, exports continued to grow steadily over the decade. In total, they grew by 57 percent since 2011 to hit $1.9 billion in 2020.
The next three biggest markets, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K., all remained fairly stable in terms of table grape import value over the decade. The top European importers managed to register growth over the period, but less than the U.S.
The Netherlands spent the first half of the decade as a significantly larger importer than Germany and the U.K. but suffered a sharp decline from 2014 to 2015, which brought it on par with the other two. In total, it grew by 17 percent over the period.
Meanwhile, Germany and the U.K. - which saw an almost identical value of table grape imports over the decade until 2020 - grew by 31 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
Of all the top 10 importers, mainland China saw the biggest import growth in percentage terms. Table grape imports swelled from $189 million to $642 million - a massive 239 percent uptick. However, almost all of that growth occurred in the first half of the decade, with only a slight rise taking place after 2014.
Hong Kong also experienced solid growth of 123 percent over the period, which was steady throughout. It started off the decade with higher imports than mainland China, $246 million, and was then eclipsed, reaching 2020 with imports of $548 million.
Imports into Canada saw slow and steady growth over the decade, similar to the U.K. In total, they grew by 14 percent to $445 million.
Russia is the only top ten market to finish the decade lower than where it started in terms of table grape imports. Trade declined sharply from 2013 to 2016 - most likely due to Russia's ongoing fresh produce import ban on the EU, U.S. and other countries it implemented in 2014. Trade recovered from 2016 to 2017 and then leveled off. In total, imports over 2010 to 2020 fell by 37 percent, finishing up on $361 million.
Indonesia started off the decade as the smallest of the top ten markets, but then experienced significant growth from 2015, then falling again in 2020. Over the decade, imports rose by 236 percent - from $81 million to $273 million.
Capping off the top 10 is France, which is a significantly smaller import market than its three European neighbors in this list. Imports were almost completely flat over the decade, growing by just 10 percent to $219 million.
Check out the interactive graph below:
