An early start to the grape harvest in California has the state’s production ahead of what it was at this point last year. Harvesting is expected to continue through December, and shipments are anticipated to continue through February of 2014.
“The season started early,” noted Kathleen Nave, President of the California Table Grape Commission. “We started harvesting during the last week of April, and the season has been good so far.” Nave attributed the early start to a combination of weather factors that led to grapes that were ready to be picked earlier than usual. The early jump to the season has made for good volumes of fruit. While shipments of grapes were at 2.3 million boxes at this point last year, California’s growers have shipped 3.2 million boxes of grapes so far this season.
“We’re significantly ahead of last year’s crop, and we expect to keep that pace up,” said Nave. The bulk of the state’s grapes are currently coming from the Coachella Valley, and harvesting there will continue through the end of June. Harvesting in the San Joaquin Valley is expected to get under way around the fourth week of June. Total volume for the state this season is expected to be close to last year’s volume of 117 million boxes.
“The crop size will be similar to last year and quality is excellent,” said Nave. “We’ve also had two more weeks on the front end to ship product, so, from a marketing standpoint, it’s shaping up to be a very good year.”