Record crop value for California table grapes

A total of 110.5 million boxes (109.3 million 19-pound box equivalents) of California table grapes were shipped during the 2015 season, setting a new record crop value at $1.83 billion, surpassing the previous record set in 2014 of $1.76 billion.

In a press release, the California Table Grape Commission said the majority of the crop is consumed in the U.S. In 2015, 34.7% of the total volume was exported to over 50 countries around the world, with a total export volume of 37.9 million 19-pound boxes valued at $737.8 million.

The top five volume export markets were Canada at 11.3 million 19-pound boxes, followed by Mexico at 5.7 million, China/Hong Kong at 3.5 million, the Philippines at 1.9 million and Taiwan at 1.8 million.

“Since the industry surpassed the 100 million box mark for the first time in its history in 2012, the total crop volume has seen three consecutive years over 110 million boxes,” said Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission.

The 2015 season total of 110.5 million boxes was the third largest crop volume in the industry’s history, just below the 2014 total of 110.9 million. The largest crop was in 2013 at 117.4 million boxes.

Grapes from California are available from May through January. With the 2016 season only about six weeks away, the commission is gearing up its global campaign for California grapes.

“The commission campaign focuses on motivating the trade to promote, and consumers to buy, more grapes from California more often,” Nave said.