South Africa dominating German market with its late season table grapes

A glut of table grapes on the market earlier in the season has seen prices crumble in Europe, as this graph from Germany’s Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) shows.

In its market report to the end of week 4 of 2015, the BLE said South African growers are dominating table grape imports into Germany, mainly with the seedless grapes Prime, Flame and Thompson.

Also taking advantage of a window of opportunity as the Southern Hemisphere production winds down are suppliers from Namibia, with the same varieties as South Africa but also some Sugraone and Dan Ben Hannah.

The supply of Peruvian and Brazilian grapes has continued to taper off, the BLE said.
In 2013 Germany imported nearly 320,000 tons of fresh table grapes, with two fifths coming from Italy and an eighth from Greece.