Mexico, Peru and Chile agree to an alliance to increase demand for grapes

SantiagoProducers from Chile, Peru and Mexico agreed to work together to increase demand for table grapes worldwide, in the face of a global oversupply of this fruit, which requires greater promotional efforts in destination markets.

The Global Grape Convention 2024, which brought together local and international grape industry players for the first time, was held this week in O’Higgins, the central Chilean region that concentrates the largest number of fruit plantations in the country.

The event concluded with a commitment to create a world committee for this fruit, while Chile, Peru and Mexico agreed to work towards the timely delivery of reports and inventories among industry players, organize annual events together, sign collaboration agreements and expressed their willingness to add more countries to the initiative.

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“The biggest challenge for our countries is to increase demand in our destination markets. To do this, the alternative that has proven to work in the world’s markets is promotion. We must promote, finance and invest resources in our grapes,” said the president of the fruit association, Frutas de Chile, Iván Marambio.

According to figures from the Decofrut company, global table grape exports totaled 3.6 million tons between 2023 and 2024. Of that amount, Chile and Peru had a 64 percent share in shipments from the southern hemisphere, while South Africa had 21 percent, among other origins.

“The big problem in this industry is the excess of supply; demand is not growing at the same rates. We need a strategic plan to solve this and the only way is to understand what the consumer needs, who does not discriminate on the origin, they want a quality product that they can eat every week of the year,” said the executive director of the Chilean Fruit Grape Committee, Ignacio Caballero.

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The United States is currently the leading market for Chilean and Peruvian grapes. This destination has shown an 80 percent growth in supply in two decades, however, demand has risen only 13 percent in the same period.

“The concentration of grapes is not good. The United States is already saturated and China is our second largest market,” said Caballero.

According to the union leader, the successful example of Chilean cherries in China has left lessons for the rest of the fruit species, such as the importance of building a brand and positioning it with promotion strategies on multiple platforms.

“China is a huge market, it requires a lot of investment, a lot of consistency, and market clarity. With grapes, we need joint participation to generate behavioral changes in preference,” said Caballero, who referred to the example of cherries.

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In the case of cherries, the respective committee of Chilean Fruits headed a multi-million dollar promotional effort that managed to increase consumption of this berry in China by 180 percent in eight years. In contrast, for table grapes, the investment in this type of action only reaches 0.25 cents per ton.

For the president of the Association of Table Grape Producers of Peru, Manuel Enrique Yzaga, collaboration to generate plans for promotion and exchange of information on supply and marketing, implies “a great effort” on the part of fruit-producing countries.

“Before, we saw our neighbor as a competitor, but then you see that the neighbor is doing well and you are doing well… We have to play very delicately to see how we can make this industry solidify for everyone,” explained the leader.

For the director of Mexico Table Grapes, Sergio Rene Lugo, it is essential to “know how the supply is moving, how many grapes there are on the market, how many grapes are on the way, in order to make decisions.”