Mexican association sets goals for next grape export deal to Australia
A representative says a trade delegation will visit the country later this year in a bid to secure supermarket programs. 
Mexican authorities recently announced the successful arrival of the country's inaugural table grape exports to Australia, but an industry leader has clarified the shipment actually arrived in June.
Sonora Spring Grapes director Juan Alberto Laborin told Fresh Fruit Portal the export protocols were secured late on in the season - which runs from April 20 to June 10 - and so the initial shipment was just a trial run.
"We did a trial shipment in the month of June and it took 20-25 days to arrive at the destination," he said, clarifying it was sold to an importer.
"For the coming year we are ready to do a lot of shipments to Australia."
He said volume would depend on the market, and the association was planning a trade mission to Australia for November to better understand what retailers and other traders are looking for.
"We need promotions in the Australian market as we have enough volume to send them everything they want and to comply with all the rules they need, but we also have to develop demand in the Australian market," the executive emphasized.
"Hopefully we’ll be able to do it in 2018 - we could have 50 or 100 shipments," he said, adding each shipment was around 16.7 metric tons (MT).
He added Mexico notched record table grape export levels this year with 21 million 18lbs boxes.
"We are present in more than 25 countries and was a good campaign," he added.
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