Chile's certainty

Working with Chilean grape exporters in the past couple of weeks, they expressed near certainty that the USDA would not move this season to change the date of Marketing Order 925, or the California desert grape marketing order. Proposing the idea first in 2005, desert grape growers want to move the effective date of their marketing order from April 20 to April 1 to prevent poor quality grapes from storage from disrupting their season. Chilean exporters say this would prematurely end their season by mandating quality inspections upon arrival, thus wreaking havoc with the supply pipeline for retailers and consumers. See this link for some heavy duty arguments for each side.

A Washington source tells me that a compromise could still happen this season - at least California growers are still pushing for a decision even now.