Though the Mexican table grape export campaign suffered a two-week delay this year, the season is set to pick up in June with record volume, says Juan Alberto Laborín, president of the Sonora Table Grape Producers Association (AALPUM).

Originally, the campaign saw a 15% year-on-year decrease of volumes. Yet Laborín told PortalFrutícola.com that the season is developing well despite its late start.

"The harvest start had a delay of almost two weeks which makes the season shorter, but we’ll have volume going into July even," he explained.

In this way, he believes the campaign will recover the low volumes it's currently seeing.

Laborín said he expected that the table grape campaign's volume had reached five million boxes by the end of May. At the end of June, this number should be more than tripled, reaching a total of 17 million boxes of eight kilos each, he commented.

The AALPUM president explained that this expected volume increase is due to favorable growing conditions in recent months.

"The quality is very good, because the temperature has been excellent for the development of the grape. There have not been strong temperatures, so that has helped to have a good caliber flow. "

Laborín added the nation plans to distribute the harvest in its key markets - the U.S, its domestic market, and Canada.

Mexico will distribute the rest of the crop to 30 countries. These destinations include England, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

When it came to sales, Laborín showed optimism concerning the campaign's large table grape volume.

"It's a very interesting and important volume, the good thing is that we have a large part of it already sold for this season," he said.