At LuBa Fresh in Venlo, the first Sicilian grapes arrived ten days ago. "As every year, the first grapes are very popular and hardly touch the ground," explains Lucien de Wit. "Volumes are still limited, as these grapes come from tunnel cultivation. In about two weeks, the first grapes from open-field cultivation will arrive. You can already see prices coming down a bit. We started at around 5 euros per kilo, and now the price is around 4 euros, but for the next two weeks, prices will certainly remain high."
Around 20 June, LuBa Fresh will begin supplying grapes from Puglia, which will also start a bit earlier than usual. "In about three weeks, we will be fully into the Italian grape season," notes Lucien. LuBa Fresh is the exclusive distributor of the Bergware brand in the Netherlands. "This year, we are also getting more seedless varieties under this brand. You can see that Italian growers are increasingly shifting toward seedless grape production, although there will always be a market for grapes with seeds."
Luuk and Lucien de Wit
According to the importer, the Italian grape season aligns perfectly with the Indian season, which has been satisfactory. "There was a lot of demand for Indian grapes; demand was strong, and each shipment sold quickly. A good year like this was very welcome after several tough seasons. However, exporting grapes globally is becoming an increasingly costly endeavor. Even in countries like Egypt and India, people are already complaining about labor costs—this is really becoming a global issue."
Next week, LuBa Fresh will also receive its first containers of Egyptian grapes. "We are a week late this year. Our focus is on the Prime and Starlight varieties. We stopped with Flame due to quality issues and overly small berries in recent years," says Lucien. "The Egyptian harvest appears to be somewhat smaller, and there is high demand from regions like the Middle East and Asia. In fact, many grapes are even going to India. As a result, fewer grapes are expected to be shipped to Europe."
For more information:
Luciën de Wit
LuBa Fresh
Tel: +31 (0) 77 777 7715
Mob: +31 (0) 6 41273443
[email protected]
www.LuBaFresh.com