Good crop and lower freight charges have failed to excite grape exporters from India as demand from the European markets continues to be low. As European nations stare at a possible recession, demand for Indian table grapes is down by 20 per cent, which can seriously hamper the price realisation of the growers.
Vilas Shinde, chairman and managing director (CMD) of the Nashik-based Sahyadri FarmsтАУthe farmersтАЩ producer companyтАУsaid early trends show that the demand from supermarkets and other sources in the European market is down by 20 per cent. тАЬThis is a serious down turn at the start of the season itself,тАЭ he said. European countries like Netherlands account for 38 per cent of the Indian exports. Fears of an impending recession, Shinde, said could be the reason why demand is low this season.
Ironically, this damper comes at a time when farmers have reported good quality of fruits with little or no adverse climatic events like heavy rains or hailstorms ahead of the harvest season. The season, Shinde said, would be delayed by a month and exports which normally start in the middle of December would start only towards the end of January. Also freight charges, which had caused concerns last year, have more or less come back to normal levels. Freight charges had sky-rocketed due to the global logistic crisis, post-Covid. Due to lack of staff and containers, exports had slumped majorly.
The country annually imports over 2.5 lakh tonnes of table grapes with countries like the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Bangladesh and the Middle-East being the primary destinations. Indian grapes fill in the slim window when grapes from South Africa is not easily available in the global market. Maharashtra is the largest grower of table grapes in the country with the Nashik region being dubbed as California of the East. India has nearly 2 lakh hectares of area under grapes with Maharashtra alone accounting for 71 percent of the cultivation. Grapenet, a unique traceability system, allows farmers to register their export ready plots and prepare for harvest in the right time. While the European markets might be down, Shinde mentioned that they are optimistic about Chinese markets being open. Last year, due to the strict Covid protocols of the country, Indian table grapes could not be sent to China.
