CALIFORNIA COULD SEE ANOTHER SURPLUS IN 2006

According to the Western Farm Press, California isn’t too far from another big surplus and falling grape prices. In fact, it’s only one crop away from last year’s record crush where 4.3 million tons of grapes were crushed. As long as wine sales falter and the ’06 crop comes in with an average yield higher than the historical 10-year average of 6.7 tons per acre, the industry is in trouble. In the past decade, three crape crushes have produced yields that average more than 7 tons per acre. Allied Grape Growers, California’s largest marketing cooperative, says there is a “very small” chance of another huge crop although it is a possibility. Allied president Nat DiBuduo stated that bud dissection and subjective crop measures “point to the likelihood that 2006 will be on the short side for both wine grapes and seedless varieties.” Nevertheless, no one expected 2005 to be as large as it was. “The bottom line is that an average yield this season would produce the third largest crush in California history,” pointed out DiBuduo. Thanks to young, healthy vines that were designed for utmost production, California wine grape crushes could be 3 million tons or more per year for the immediate future. DiBuduo maintains that their mission is not to scare people in the industry, but to warn them of the “need to be careful about being overly optimistic about market trends and looming shortages.”