The situation in Argentina has changed over the past month. The government devalued the Peso by 22% last month which has helped to promote exports.
Producers there do not have many supplies to sell but suggest the lower pricing could encourage sales whilst the pricing for European supplies settles.
Production from the 2023 crop in Argentina was down 35% on a usual season and juice production was down by 50%. Exports of grape juice concentrate from Argentina remain slow with just 20,100 tonnes exported between January and July this year, compared with 45,500 tonnes during the same period last year.
· EUROPE
After an extremely unstable summer with lots of rainstorms and hail events that caused major problems with plant disease in many regions, Italy is expecting a very difficult crop.
There are no volume estimations available yet. The crop cannot start due to the excess of rain which is rendering the vineyards inaccessible. The farmers also want to wait to harvest in order for the brix levels to increase.
Italy only has limited carry over of grape juice concentrate from the previous crop. New season pricing out of Italy is expected from mid-September and analysts expect offers to be higher than last year due to the lower supply. Meanwhile, production in Spain is predicted to be 14% lower than last year. There were also storms there recently, but there was reportedly no significant damage to the vines. The poor crop in Italy is expected to weigh heavily on Spanish producers, because the big Italian companies will look to source supplies from Spain. The industry in Spain is currently delivering on old contracts and new season offers are expected from mid- September.
