After years of work, organic table grapes from Chile will in the U.S. for the first time this week, thanks to implementing the Systems Approach last year.
As the Systems Approach allows grapes to be exported to the U.S. without fumigation, organic growers can finally ship their fruit.
TerraFresh Organics was among the first company to import these grapes, which will arrive in Philadelphia.
TerraFresh's Chief Operations Officer Fernando Valle told Freshfruitportal.com that the arrival is very exciting because they have been trying to import organic grapes from Chile for over 30 years.
"This opens up an excellent window for us because it comes right after Peru is done, so the South American organic grape market is pretty much empty," he said.
Valle noted that this first shipment was combined work with El Cerrito and Agricola San Pablo in Chile through Subsole.
When asked about President Donald Trump's new retaliatory global tariffs, Valle said they were a surprise. They expected only shipments from Mexico would be affected, not those from South America and the rest of the world.
"We're not exactly sure of the impact this will have, but we still expect that the market will be very hungry for organic grapes as the market is pretty empty right now," Valle said.
Valle assured that organic fruit importers were the most excited about the approval of the Systems Approach, as it finally opened the Chilean market, which already moves substantial volumes in conventional.
However, he is aware it may cause some skepticism for growers to export to the U.S. because it does add a cost for growers.
Additionally, the industry has to ship grapes with very high-quality standards that can survive the long trip up to the U.S.
"Overall, this first season will be more of a test run, to evaluate returns. If the results are good, then surely a lot of growers will get on board," said Valle.
Regarding fruit quality, he says they trust Subsole as an experienced exporter with expertise in the table fruit industry. Additionally, they know the company operates under very high standards.
As Freshfruitportal.com reported a few weeks ago, port congestion in the main East Coast ports was causing significant damage to the table grape import market, slowing down the movement of the fruit and sinking prices.
Valle said they have struggled with port and cold storage congestion this season.
"It's something that we are still dealing with, and I don't see it getting any better; however, with this first shipment, which is not a huge volume, we should do pretty well," Valle said.
He also expressed his pride in their partnership with Subsole, a sister company through Frutura, which allowed them to be among the first to open the market for organic Chilean table grapes in the US.
The first edition of GrapeTech will be held on June 18 at the Casino Monticello Event Center. The event, organized by UvaNova and Yentzen Group, will be the most important technical event on table grapes in Chile and will bring together world experts to provide technical aspects that allow the growth of the industry, such as post-harvest issues, crop management, analysis of new varieties and nutrition, among others. More information at events@yentzengroup.com or visit www.grapetechconvention.com
