Dear Readers.

Slowly, slowly everybody  is coming back from their vacation. Most children are back at school again,

In other words the almost sleeping markets, can or will come to life again.

This is the ongoing practice: a dull period from end of May until early September.

The revival always takes place somewhere in September/October because purchasers are warned by the sales-managers whether there is enough stock (or not) to enter into the winter-season when most of festivities take place.

An old saying in this respect comes from the shares-market : be away in May and remember: be back in September. It sounds odd but is still most of the times very true.

As far as raisins are concerned, two important suppliers are more or less predicting the financial route this commodity will follow in the season to come.

It is no secret to say that the two big players are California and Turkey.. The two of them are basically good for 600.000 tons of raisins all together.

California, as it stands today, will probably around 240.000 tons but they have a  fair carry-over from last year,

 The earlier figures in Turkey were indicated to be around or over 330.000 tons but the latest indications speak  about 5 to 10 percent less Overall it will be a big question-mark how this season will end up for the farmers, the packers and the dealers. of course.

We will see.

For the fans of South African qualities, we can only say:   “”IT IS FAR TOO EARLY” to predict anything seriously. Nobody can give a clue about the upcoming new crop.

Wait and see, is the only serious expression we can find.

We hope to have more secure news in a month from now.

We see each other at the ANUGA in October.