Grapes in general have had a rough time for the last year, both in the sales markets but also at production level and with logistical challenges. There have been different issues for different supply countries. "Lots of mixed quality from all sources, vessel delays, logistical infrastructure issues in South Africa, some strike actions in Peru, big weather damages in Chile, lowering volumes and then causing quality problems, agricultural wage inflation pressures in both Peru and South Africa," explains Rob Cullum from Pacific Produce. "And of course Covid affecting costs and, depending on the destination market, consumption. I cannot speak for all markets but it is my belief that grapes are often an impulse purchase – they are an attractive key part of the fruit display in all retail shops – and during all of the various lockdowns people did not shop in a normal way – higher levels of internet shopping or “click & collect” both of which do not lend themselves to impulse purchase and also the tendency is not to purchase more delicate items in this way. Combine that with the lack of open market trade and the frequent shop being replaced by the weekly shop which takes place in a different way (get in and get out)." Pacific Produce imports grapes mainly from Peru's Piura region and according to Rob they had a solid season in terms of production and delivering to programs. The season has now ended. "The traded market was more tricky from October to December, the lockdown dance of in and out in Europe was too complicated to try to plan around so, from our farms, we limited the risk with lower volumes." "Post Christmas we lower our volumes to Europe from Peru significantly as Namibia/RSA take over – it seemed like timing issues were the predominant factor for most of Jan to March for the various regions and the fruit that we received was mixed quality and the market reacted by paying the right money for good product but unfortunately for the farms any product with problems did not find a reasonable outlet. With lockdowns in place the normal trading market that can deal with issues and sort product and find the right home did not exist, so this resulted in very low prices for that fruit." "There is still some way to go for the Southern Hemisphere, so hopefully with Spring starting and vaccinations increasing, we can see an uptick in the market and more people out and about will increase the impulse purchase." Source - https://www.freshplaza.com