Fresno, Calif. – With the raisin harvest in full swing growers and packers are dealing with a fine quality for the fruit, but smaller totals for the harvest as compared to last year and this was not unexpected.
The Raisin Bargaining Association’s Steve Spate was quoted in an article by the Western Farm Press as saying this scenario for growers is disturbing, “Because of the cyclical nature of grape vines, we were anticipating this year’s raisin crop would by substantially lighter than last year’s heavy crop. Once we started picking the grapes, we were seeing production down anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent. Early indications show yields this year may be off an average of around 20 percent, compared to last year. It’s frustrating.”
The weather has been perfect for the raisin growers and packers this year, so the quality and sugar content is good says Datatech client Gerald Chooljian and a principal with Del Rey Packing as quoted in the Fresno Bee, “The harvest has been going very smoothly and the quality of the grapes is excellent and the weather has been optimal.”
Datatech supports agribusiness in America including the raisin industry with our state of the art cost accounting, inventory and sales software. We’d like to thank the raisin industry for what they do and wish all or raisin packing clients continued success!