Last year, production reached 72 million boxes. Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission, said the last time the crop was under 75 million boxes was 1994. 

Chilean exporters and authorities expected to have the protocol approved for the 2023-24 season, but an issue related with the Free Trade Agreement between Chile and the EU is holding it back.

The main destination for Peruvian table grapes was the United States, accounting for 46% of the total share, with a little over 29 million boxes received. 

Noting the need to sell more U.S. grown products to U.S. consumers, the recommendations include the establishment of a domestic promotion program modeled after the successful Market Access Program (MAP). 

This partnership is official as of Feb. 6, and will officially begin shipping products to market in early July from their new cold storage facility and offices in Delano. 

Increasing its commitment to expand the reach of its global marketing campaign, the California Table Grape Commission named Nick Nakashian as Director of  Content Development.  

U.S. retailers are focused on table grape imports and fruit in cold storage as the local harvest period has come to an end.

"U.S. producers do not want this system to be implemented and the fact that Chilean importers want it should hold no weight for the USDA," says the President of the California Table Grape Commission, Kathleen Nave.

The loss of 25 million boxes was felt by international importers, especially by some Asian clients experiencing lower volume and difficulty guaranteeing the quality of the fruit arriving at port. However, there are exceptions.

The São Francisco Valley accounts for 95% of all Brazilian grapes produced for export, but the valley has only five agricultural inspectors to analyze and release the product.