Chilean Grapes

Vanguard International is pleased to share an update on its Chilean grapes. For the season to date, Chile has shipped 24,939,095 boxes of Table Grapes to various parts of the world. This will be slightly down (23%) for the year, with total volumes loaded expected to be 80 to 85 million boxes of table grapes.

South African Grapes

Vanguard International is pleased to share an update on the South African grape season with one full week of packing remaining (Berg and Hex River). The season will end in mid-March. Some of the popular varieties Vanguard ships from this region include Sweet Celebration, Adora, Sweet Globe, Scarlotta, Melody and Crimson.

The only remaining areas are the Berg and Hex river. The weather over the past 3 to 4 weeks has been very favorable for grape picking and it looks like the constant heat over a 2-week period (week 6 and 7) resulted in a fast ripening Crimson crop.

The estimated volume for the season is between 62 million cartons, which is a target well on its way to being met. Grapes will continue to ship despite some heavy winds in the Cape Town harbor.

Peruvian Grapes

The Peruvian grape season continues with just under 40 million boxes of table grapes shipped to date, up over 30% from the previous season. The total estimate for the season across Peru is 44 million boxes of table grapes. The harvest both in Piura and in Ica has been a challenge.  Seedless is finished harvesting. All that remains are Red Globes from the Ica region.

A highlight out of the Vanguard operations in Peru is the new packing house which allows for a range of packing styles and types — a significant advantage when packing multiple varieties for all types of customers (retail, wholesale, foodservice, e–commerce) in over 25 countries – with superior cooling and cold chain control.

One of the benefits of the new facility is that we developed a unique capability to pre-condition our grapes inside the packing house as opposed to out in the field. This allows the team to get the grapes out of the field heat and into a controlled environment quickly where a more efficient and humidity-controlled pre-conditioning, and first stage packing process exists, all with state-of-the-art cold chain management.