Central Valley in California is locking a promising start to its 2025-26 table grape season, amid steady demand past Mexico’s supplies.

By mid-June 2025, weather-affected imports from Mexico were at 8.9 million boxes out of a possible 24 million boxes. 

A cross-border decrement favors California’s season at a nostalgic timing when the memory of its table grape breeding centenary is still fresh.   

By June 9, a few locales in Coachella Valley in southern California were beginning picking, with volumes mounting. 

Ian LeMay, President and chief executive of the California Table Grape Commission at the time cited a “significant promise” for statewide production.

LeMay attributed quality as top notch due to a stable winter and mild spring but warned against overoptimism. 

Coachella and Beyond

After the maiden reaping in Coachella Valley in late May, the harvest has expanded northward to the southern limits of San Joaquin Valley. 

With its northern parameters extending into the bountiful Central Valley, San Joaquin Valley pushes its grape harvest till December. 

Central Valley, meanwhile, which produces the bulk of the harvest, begins its reaping in early July.

By the time the production hub will be culminating in November, 90% of the statewide picking will have been over. 

Harvest estimates for 2025 are at 95 million 19-pound boxes, although some quarters expect to see 100 million boxes. 

In 2024, the table grape output in California totaled 93.2 million 19-lb cartons, according to the California Table Grape Commission. 

Demand Up

Whetting the favorable production this season is of course the nearing end of the Mexico season and current robust demand.

Federal demand in 2025-26 could replay that of the 2022-23 marketing year which attained 8.64 pounds per capita, above 2021-22’s 8.49 pounds. 

Ultimately, customers are increasingly willing to pay premium for quality grapes. A 2024 survey found that 30% of buyers were willing to carve out high prices with quality guarantee. To learn more on how the demand-ready 2025 season holds forth against the balance sheet of history, peruse below statistics. 

California Table Grape Marketing Season Statistics 

California produces 98% to 99% of all table grapes in the United States, with production going back to the 1920s. This owes to suitable weather in the southern and central parts of the state. The major production region is the long and narrow Central Valley, which runs 450 miles long over 11% of California’s landmass. Its extension to the south is San Joaquin Valley, which is one of the most important table grape production zones. According to the State Government, San Joaquin’s Kern and Tulare Counties produced 85% of table grapes in California in 2012.  By 2024, the whole of California was producing 93.2 million 19-pound boxes of the fresh fruit. 

How does table grape production compare with wine grapes in the Golden State ? 

California produces around 95 million 19-pound boxes of table grapes, per a 2025 estimate. Rival wine grape production was at 147,182 tonnes from Napa County alone, in 2024.

Has the table grape acreage kept up with that of wine grapes?  

The acreage of table grapes in California has been reducing by at least -1.6% between 2021 and 2023. While in 2021 it totaled 128,000 acres, by 2023 it had shrunk to 125,000 acres. The same applies to the wine grape area, which shed at least -0.99% annually, from 615,000 acres in 2021 to 610,000 acres in 2023.