Who's eating seedless grapes?

Grapes are becoming more popular and in recent years changes have occurred in all aspects of the grape value chain, from production quality and increased availability from sourcing countries to innovation in packaging and development of new varieties.
Elsevier Food International,Vol. 8, No.4, November 2005

Overall, world grape consumption has been increasing, with higher levels being reported in European markets such as Italy, UK, Netherlands and Germany. With a population of 1.3 billion people, China remains the leading consumer of fresh grapes by far. In Italy, Egypt, Turkey and Spain, much of this trend is due to the fact that these countries consume a high proportion of their own fresh grape production.

A key trend is consumer demand for seedless grapes, particularly in the UK, US, Canada and Europe. Popular varieties include Thompson white seedless, Crimson red seedless, Perlette seedless, Flame seedless and Sugraone seedless. Attempts to offer "consumer friendly" grapes have also been successful, such as new packaging concepts. Packaging styles range from bags with zip locks to punnets for protection, or smaller packaging and pouches. Grapes are also seen as a convenient fruit, a quick hassle-free healthy snack option. In the UK, grapes are more likely to be consumed at lunchtime as an in-home snack– home snacking alone accounts for 23 per cent of grape consumption.

In some countries, grape exports comprise the bulk of fresh fruit exports. Chilean grapes account for more than 33 per cent of the country’s fruit exports. High export levels have undoubtedly led to increased investment in R&D and technology in producing new varieties, not only in Chile but also across all markets.

Per capita consumption of grapes (kg. per capita)

	1999	2001	2003
Americas
USA	8.2	8.2	9.1
Mexico	2.1	2.3	2.1
Brazil	2.5	3.0	3.4
Argentina	1.1	1.0	1.4
Canada	9.5	9.8	10.1
Europe
France	2.0	5.3	3.9
UK	10.2	9.9	10.1
Germany	8.0	8.0	8.0
Italy	15.8	14.9	7.8
Spain	10.7	4.7	7.3
Netherlands	11.5	11.6	11.2
Belgium	5.8*	3.6	3.7
Turkey	26	21.9	27.8
Africa
Egypt	13.7	14.5	14
South Africa	5.2	2.0	2.2
Asia Pacific
Australia	10.1	9.5	11.7
Japan	2.5	1.8	2.3
China	1.2	2.2	2.4
India	1.0	0.9	0.9

*Figure for Belgium-Luxembourg

Source: Promar International from trade sources