Raisin Industry Research Articles

Unintended Competition from Volume Controls: A Note on the Horne v. Department of Agriculture Decision

Abstract The U.S. Supreme Court case, Horne v. Department of Agriculture, dealt with the legality of volume controls in the raisin industry. Marketing orders and volume controls in agricultural markets have a long history in the United States and have often been used to decrease price volatility. However, some have seen these volume controls as engaging in cartel behavior. Using a Cournot model, this paper shows that volume controls used by agricultural marketing orders can be profit reducing under some conditions. If producers anticipate a restriction in the production that is allowed to go into the market on a prorated basis, initial production may increase, which can lower profits. Counter intuitively, volume controls can even increase the quantity sold in the market and lower the price.

Effects of dehydration speed on the metabolism of membrane lipids and its relation to the browning of the Thompson seedless grape

AbstractXinjiang is the main producing area of raisins and the largest green raisins production base in China. The browning of Thompson seedless grape raisin is extremely serious during the drying process, and has become the key issue in the development of Xinjiang raisin industry. Previous studies have shown that dehydration speed has a great impact on the browning of Thompson seedless grape, but few relevant mechanisms have been studied. Here, we demonstrate the effect of dehydration speed on lipid metabolism and its relation to the browning of the Thompson seedless grape during drying. Compared to slow dehydration treatment, rapid dehydration treatment of the Thompson seedless grape exhibited a lower degree of browning and activities of lipoxygenase (LOX), a higher index of unsaturated fatty acids and degree of unsaturated fatty acid. Moreover, the Thompson seedless grape treated with rapid dehydration resulted in a lower rate of superoxide anion production, hydrogen peroxide content, membrane permeability, and malondialdehyde content. These findings demonstrate that rapid dehydration inhibiting the browning of Thompson seedless grapes might be due to the inhibiting activities of LOX and the lower accumulation of reactive oxygen species. These activities can inhibit lipid peroxidation and slow the decomposition of unsaturated fatty acid in the membrane in Thompson seedless grapes, protecting the cellular membrane structural integrity, which may result in less contact of polyphenol oxidase with phenolic substrates and less enzymatic browning during drying. The results provide a theoretical basis for the application of rapid dehydration in drying Thompson seedless grapes.

Proteomic analyses on the browning of shade-dried Thompson seedless grape

China is one of the main producers in the worldwide raisin market. Most China’s raisins are produced in Xinjiang where the Thompson seedless grape (Vitis vinifera L.cv.Thompson seedless) is the main variety of green raisin. However, the browning of Thompson seedless grape during drying has been well-acknowledged as the primary factor affecting the development of the raisin industry. Data independent acquisition (DIA)-based protein profiling was performed on fresh and shade-dried Thompson seedless grapes. As a result, 5431 proteins were identified, among which the amounts of 739 proteins in fresh grape were found to be significantly different with those in dried grape. The functional annotation based on the Blast2GO showed that the ‘organic substance metabolic process’, ‘regulation of molecular function’, ‘enzyme regulator activity’, and ‘isomerase activity’ related proteins became very active during browning. Further analyses revealed that the browning-related proteins, which with significant different amounts in fresh and in dried grapes, are primarily involved in the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, tyrosine metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation metabolism, plutathione metabolism, peroxisome pathway, and fatty acid degradation. And five random differential proteins were verified with parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). The PRM results were in agreement with the DIA data. The main browning-related proteins of Thompson seedless grape were identified in this study. Their properties were tested, and their roles in the browning mechanism were indicated. This will lay base to a better understanding on the enzymatic browning of Thompson seedless grape, and it will also provide guidance for controlling the quality of Thompson seedless grapes in industry.

The Raisin Industry in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa

The Raisin Industry in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa

Yield, Quality, Sensory Attributes, and Consumer Acceptance of Seedless Muscat Raisin Grapes Dried on the Vine or on Trays

Summary Goals: The California raisin industry is transitioning from tray-dry to dry-on-vine (DOV) production methods. Grapes dry more slowly on the vine compared to on trays, so the DOV method works better with raisin grape varieties that ripen earlier than Thompson Seedless. Earliness allows drying to commence during a hotter part of the summer, and affords a longer drying period. Summer Muscat and Diamond Muscat are among the earliest ripening of the newer raisin varieties, but they have not been widely planted, partly due to a lack of information about yield and quality, and also because of industry concerns that consumers would not accept their muscat flavor. Therefore, we conducted field research to document yield components and quality grades in Summer Muscat and Diamond Muscat, and we performed sensory and consumer acceptance tests to compare these varieties with Fiesta, a standard neutral-flavored DOV variety. Further, we considered whether the tray or DOV drying method affected consumer acceptance of raisins from these varieties. Key Findings: Diamond Muscat and Summer Muscat were similarly productive, with grapes that could fully dry on the vine, producing raisins with high “B or better” and low “substandard” grades. Both muscat varieties produced a high proportion of fruit from basal nodes, especially when trained to quadrilateral cordons. Fruit from basal buds is undesirable for cane-pruned DOV varieties, so bilateral cordon training is recommended. Compared to Summer Muscat, Diamond Muscat had a higher proportion of “head fruit” (clusters on renewal shoots and below the point where canes were severed), and Diamond Muscat berries were heavier and less acidic. Compared to tray-dried raisins of a given variety, DOV raisins were less brown and more homogeneous in color, smaller and less homogenous in size, had finer wrinkles, and were spicier, sweeter, less sour and astringent, and less chewy than tray-dried raisins. Grapevine variety and drying method interacted to affect consumer preference in raisins; consumers most preferred Fiesta raisins (tray and DOV) and Summer Muscat raisins dried on trays, and they least preferred Summer Muscat DOV raisins. Impact and Significance: We found that Diamond Muscat and Summer Muscat have similar and high productivity, sufficient earliness to ensure consistent and adequate drying, and reliably good quality scores, making both varieties well suited for DOV raisin production from an agronomic perspective. However, consumer acceptance of Summer Muscat raisins was strongly affected by drying method; the DOV method resulted in the least-liked raisins in the study, and the tray drying method produced the most-liked raisins. In contrast, drying method did not strongly affect consumer preference of raisins from other varieties, although drying method consistently affected many of the tested hedonic variables.

RNA sequencing reveals high resolution expression change of major plant hormone pathway genes after young seedless grape berries treated with gibberellin

Seedless varieties are of particular importance to the table-grape and raisin industries. Gibberellin (GA) application is widely used in the early stages of seedless berry development to increase berry size and economic value. However, the underlying mechanism of GA induction of berry enlargement is not well understood. Here, RNA-sequencing analysis of ‘Centennial Seedless’ (Vitis vinifera L.) berries treated with GA3 12 days after flowering is reported. Pair-wise comparison of GA3-treated and control samples detected 165, 444, 463 genes with an over two-fold change in expression 1, 3, and 7 days after GA3 treatment, respectively. The number of differentially expressed genes increased with time after GA3 treatment, and the differential expression was dominated by downregulation. Significantly modulated expression included genes encoding synthesis and catabolism to manage plant hormone homeostasis, hormone transporters, receptors and key components in signaling pathways; exogenous GA3 induced multipoint cross talk with auxin, cytokinin, brassinosteroid, ABA and ethylene. The temporal gene-expression patterns of cell-wall-modification enzymes, cytoskeleton and membrane components and transporters revealed a pivotal role for cell-wall-relaxation genes in GA3-induced berry enlargement. Our results provide the first sequential transcriptomic atlas of exogenous GA3-induced berry enlargement and reveal the complexity of GA3's effect on berry sizing.

DRYING RATE OF FRESH BERRIES FROM NATURAL DRY-ON-THE-VINE (DOV) GRAPE GERMPLASM

The California raisin industry is using mechanical harvest methods to increase production efficiency. Fruiting canes of raisin cultivars must be cut to induce the fruit drying process. Grape germplasm that has its fruit dry-on-the-vine (DOV) without having their canes cut have been identified. Understanding the fruit or plant charac-teristics that cause the natural drying process to occur would allow breeders to select this type of raisin grape with less field testing. The drying rates at 38°C of two natural DOV selections were compared to ?Summer Muscat? (fast berry drying rate) and ?Thompson Seedless? (slow drying rate). All berries compared were 14.3 mm diameter and 22°Brix determined by density flotation. The drying rate of one genotype was similar to ?Summer Muscat? and the other dried slower than ?Thompson Seedless?, even though both dry into raisins on the vine without cutting canes. Drying was slower for all genotypes when the pedicel was covered with wax to prevent water loss through the pedicel compared to two years when the pedicel was not waxed. ?Thompson Seedless? drying rate was dramatically decreased by the wax compared to the other genotypes. The drying order was the same for all years except for ?Thompson Seed¬less?, which was the slowest when waxed. The drying rate does not explain why the two natural DOV genotypes dry without cutting canes. The cultivars did not differ in cuticle or wax thickness, except one DOV selection had more wax, which should have caused slow drying rates. The DOV genotypes do not develop higher sugar levels early as might be expected. The causes that induce natural drying of grape fruit into raisins remain to be found. There may be other factors such as water transport out of the berry and through the leaves that might be causing the initiation of the natural DOV phenomena.

Grapevine Cultivars, Trellis Systems, and Mechanization of the California Raisin Industry

Growers in California’s San Joaquin Valley produced >25% of the world’s raisins in 2012, with a farm-gate value of >$590 million, making the United States the leading global producer of raisins. California’s traditional raisin-making method is a laborious process in which clusters of grapes (Vitis vinifera) are harvested by hand onto paper trays, which are left in the vineyard to dry. The drying fruit may need to be turned or rolled, tasks requiring manual labor, and the trays of dried raisins are also picked up by hand. Most California raisins continue to be made in this way, but in recent years, the declining availability and increasing cost of labor has prompted many growers to implement one of two mechanized production systems, “continuous tray” (CT) or “dry-on-vine” (DOV). In CT systems, machines are used to pick the berries, lay them onto a tray, and pick up the dried raisins. The CT system could be considered a short-term strategy: it is compatible with existing conventional ‘Thompson Seedless’ raisin vineyards and has been widely adopted. The DOV system could be considered a medium-term strategy: it is best suited for vineyards specifically designed for DOV, with early ripening grapevine cultivars on expansive trellis systems, which ensures timely drying, and capitalizes on the fact that sunlit row middles are not needed for fruit drying. Grapevine breeding programs are currently working toward the development of raisin grape cultivars with fruitful basal nodes, with fruit that dry naturally upon ripening. This is a long-term strategy to further reduce labor needs by enabling mechanical pruning in winter and eliminating the need for cane severance in the summer.

Potential economic and health impacts of ochratoxin A regulatory standards

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin found in multiple agricultural commodities worldwide. OTA causes renal toxicity in certain animal species, but there is little documented evidence of adverse health effects in humans. Until recently, few nations have established regulations on maximum levels for OTA in commodities. The application of regulations may cause economic loss to food producers, which should be considered alongside potential health benefits from enacting such regulations. We evaluate the potential economic impacts of the recently proposed OTA maximum limits (MLs) for foodstuffs by Health Canada. Potential costs to Canadian food producers and nations exporting to Canada are estimated using data on reported proportion of foodstuffs exceeding OTA ML levels, and market data from the Canadian Importer's Database and the United States Department of Agriculture Global Agricultural Trade System. If the proposed OTA MLs are enforced, estimated annual losses to Canadian food producers could exceed 260 million Canadian dollars (CD), based on proportion of products expected to have OTA levels exceeding the MLs. Wheat and oat producers would experience the greatest proportion of economic loss. The United States is the largest exporter to Canada of foods that would be subject to the proposed MLs, and would experience an estimated annual loss of over 17 million CD; primarily in the infant food, breakfast cereal and raisin industries. The countervailing health benefits of such OTA standards are unclear. These potential health and economic implications should be considered by policymakers when setting regulatory standards on food safety.

MECHANIZATION IN AUSTRALIAN VINEYARDS

The adoption of low-input management systems, based on mechanization of harvest and pruning, has been a key factor leading to the development of efficient, internationally competitive wine and raisin industries in Australia. This has been achieved with substantial savings in the cost of production without compromising quality. For table grapes, which are hand harvested, pruning inputs are reduced by mechanized pre-pruning of spur pruned cultivars and removal of spent fruiting canes from cane pruned cultivars. For wine grape production, the introduction and rapid adoption of mechanical harvesting in the 1970s provided a catalyst for the adoption of low-input mechanical pruning systems ranging from tight mechanical hedging, aiming to retain similar bud numbers to hand pruning, lighter forms of mechanical hedging and minimal pruning. Post-set mechanical thinning is also routinely used for crop control. For dried grapes, highly productive mechanized systems have been developed for in-situ, trellis drying first introduced in the 1960s. These systems use bi-lateral cordons established on tall trellises and hanging, fruit bearing canes. They provide a large canopy surface to optimize photosynthetic capacity of high vigour, grafted vines with separation of fruiting and renewal zones to optimize fruitfulness and facilitate mechanization of the drying and pruning processes. It is now estimated that more than 80% of the Australian dried grape crop is mechanically harvested based on the concept of trellis drying. This overview will provide an update on the adoption of mechanization in Australian vineyards, the development of improved trellis systems to facilitate these processes and the role of mechanization in the future ‘total integrated systems approaches’ to vineyard management.

Proteomic analysis of berry‐sizing effect of GA3 on seedless Vitis vinifera L.

Gibberellin (GA) is widely used in the table grape and raisin industries to enlarge the berries of seedless varieties. However, the mechanism underlying its berry-sizing effect is poorly understood. In this study, clusters of Centennial Seedless (Vitis vinifera L.) were treated with 30 ppm GA3 on day 12 after flowering, and berries were sampled at development stages I, II and III for proteomic analysis. Among the 1479 proteins detected on 2-DE maps, 19, 70 and 69 spots in stages I, II and III, respectively, showed an at least twofold difference in volume between treatments and controls. Of these, 125 proteins were successfully identified and assigned to eight functional groups, chief among them are metabolism and energy, stress response, expression regulation and cytoskeleton proteins. Stress-response proteins were predominantly down-regulated in GA3-treated berries in stages I and II, and significantly up-regulated in stage III. Up-regulation of cytoskeleton, cell-wall modification and other important proteins was found in the two latter stages of berry development. Our proteomic results and subsequent validation revealed, for the first time, the role of redox homeostasis in GA3-induced berry enlargement and markedly remodeled cellular protein expression in treated berries.

Sun-Maid Growers of California

Barry Kriebel, President of Sun-Maid Growers, wants to explain to his growers how price discovery has occurred in the raisin industry. The case asks the reader to explain the key determinants of demand and supply for raisins, analyze price discovery, and consider alternative investments.

Potential Abscission Agents for Raisin, Table, and Wine Grapes

Effective abscission agents that decrease fruit detachment force (FDF) are sought by the California raisin industry to improve the continuous tray mechanical harvesting method. Such agents might also enable mechanical harvest of table and wine grapes (Vitis vinifera L.), but few agents are known to be effective for grape. Thus, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and six other compounds known to stimulate abscission of other fruits were screened for their ability to reduce FDF of mature ‘Thompson Seedless’ grapes. Most compounds tested reduced FDF to some extent, but MeJA was particularly effective. Solutions containing between 45 and 4500 ppm MeJA reduced FDF by at least 50% to 85% compared with nontreated fruits. Application of 2250 and 4500 ppm MeJA to ‘Thompson Seedless’ vines caused 25% to 50% fruit drop, respectively, within 10 d after treatment (DAT). The efficacy of MeJA was verified in a second experiment in which solutions of 0, 1125, 2250, or 4500 ppm MeJA were applied to clusters of ‘Crimson Seedless’ grapes; at 14 DAT, FDF declined as a linear function of MeJA applied. The grapes did not abscise, but berries treated with 2250 to 4500 ppm MeJA had slightly lower soluble solids than nontreated fruits. Solutions of 0 or 4500 ppm MeJA applied to clusters of ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ and ‘Merlot’ grapevines reduced FDF by 66% and 75%, respectively. Fruit drop was estimated to be less than 10%. Thus, a solution containing up to 4500 ppm MeJA may be an effective abscission agent to facilitate mechanical harvest of ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ or ‘Merlot’.

Effects of Harvest Pruning on `Thompson Seedless' Grapevines

In response to diminishing returns, the California raisin industry is rapidly adopting mechanical raisin harvesting practices to reduce cost. Whether the fruit will dry on the vine, or be laid on continuous trays to dry, the first step of mechanical raisin harvest generally involves severing the canes of vines with ripe fruit, a practice known as harvest pruning (HP). The potential physiological implications of HP are uncertain, so an experiment was established to assess the effects of HP on 40-year-old `Thompson Seedless' grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.) that were on their own roots, head-trained and cane pruned, and supported by a single wire trellis. Fruit achieved 20 °Brix by 2 Sept., at which time vines had a leaf area of about 21.6 m2. About 60% of the canopy leaf area was from canes, and thus removed by HP. The net CO2 assimilation rate (A) of mature leaves on renewal shoots began to decline after about 8 Aug., but they maintained a positive A until at least 31 Oct. Reduced A was due, in part, to chlorophyll degradation as evidenced by a decline in SPAD units occurring over the period that A declined. Harvest pruning generally did not affect A of mature leaves retained on renewal shoots, but those leaves maintained a positive A for at least 60 d after HP indicating that HP reduced the vines' photosynthetic capacity. Soil respiration also declined between summer and winter, probably in response to decreasing soil temperatures. Soil respiration was similar among HP and non-HP vines, except about 30 d after HP, when HP vines had about 30% lower soil respiration values than non-HP vines. Root growth was observed in summer and fall regardless of whether vines were subjected to HP.

An economic analysis of California raisin export promotion

AbstractThe effectiveness of the California raisin industry's export promotion programs in Japan and in the United Kingdom is addressed in this article. An econometric import demand equation was estimated for each of the two foreign markets. The results indicate that the export promotion programs have increased the demand for California raisins in both Japan and the United Kingdom. The benefit‐cost ratios for the Japanese and the United Kingdom markets were computed to be 5:1 and 15:1, respectively; indicating that the benefit of export promotion in terms of expanding export revenue was greater than the cost of the programs. Optimality analysis suggest that, while the current export promotion spending level in Japan is about optimal, the industry should explore the option of investing more money in its export promotion activities in the United Kingdom. [EconLit citations: Q130: Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness; Q170: Agriculture in International Trade; Q180: Agricultural Policy; Food Policy.] © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 19: 189–201, 2003.

The Sinister Side of Agricultural Cooperation

Victoria Saker Woeste, the author of this impressive, multi-disciplinary study (which had its origins in her dissertation), is a research fellow at the American Bar Association. Woeste deftly interweaves legal history, economic history and agricultural history, addressing important themes in each field. The author's story involves agricultural cooperatives and their legal standing in the face of antitrust legislation and corporate law from the end of the Civil War to 1945, with particular attention to cooperation in the California raisin industry. Woeste highlights a crucial difference in the ways that lawmakers perceived cooperatives and their actual structure and behavior. While many legislators and judges retained a romantic view of yeomen farmers and therefore privileged their organizations over industrial trusts, the key marketing cooperative in the raisin industry resorted to zealotry and violence to reinforce its economic combinations and became as ruthless as

Factories in the Field Revisited

The raisin situation... is more than a private question. The welfare of this whole community is so bound up in the prosperity of the raisin business, and the progress of that is so dependent on organized and more or less public action, that raisin affairs have always been treated, and properly treated, as public affairs.... The raisin industry, in this community, can not be treated, and never has been treated, as business in that narrowly private sense. Chester Rowell

Creating an Agricultural Trust: Law and Cooperation in California, 1898–1922

During the late nineteenth century, as the “trust problem” occupied the attention of politicians and entrepreneurs across the nation, California farmers began an experiment that would irretrievably alter the form and function of agricultural marketing cooperatives. Taking a cue from the robber barons, leaders in the state's promising raisin industry set out to apply the advantages of corporation law—and of the modern trust—to the principles of cooperation. As early as 1899, the raisin industry's merger of corporation and cooperative caught the attention of the San Francisco Chronicle's agricultural editor, Edward F. Adams. “The principle of cooperation in [agriculture] for marketing purposes,” he wrote, “is identical with that of the cooperation of capitalists in what are called ‘Trusts.’”

An Empirical Analysis of Economic Performance under the Marketing Order for Raisins

AbstractThis study utilizes a dynamic econometric model of the California raisin industry to compare predictions of prices, production, profits, and related measures under the volume control program with predictions under several no‐control scenarios. The outcomes are evaluated in relation to performance criteria proposed by a USDA study team. The twenty‐two‐year comparisons suggest that the public interest may have been well served by the raisin volume control program, or at worst there was no significant welfare loss.

Climatic Variations and the California Raisin Industry

IN the central San Joaquin Valley of California, raisins are made from grapes by processing them on paper trays under the open sky in the vineyards. Drying of the raisin grapes begins after harvest in late August and lasts until approximately the second week in October. The critical drying period is the month of September, during which the grapes may be damaged if they are moistened by rains of as little as 0.25 millimeters. The whole crop can be destroyed by amounts of rain in excess of 6.4 millimeters. Although the amount of rain received on any one day is critical, temperature, humidity, and solar radiation conditions in the period immediately after the rain are decisive in mitigating damage. When rain threatens, the trays are rolled and stacked in the vineyards as a protective measure, but the large number of trays and the wide area over which the trays are spread make such protection a costly enterprise. This unique approach to the processing of raisin grapes is apparently predicated on the assumption that the probability of a wet day during the critical drying period is low. This expectation is probably justified because the region is ordinarily dry until mid-September after which the probability of adverse raisin-drying weather has been shown to increase.1 However, during the period 1920 to 1950, Septembers were very dry and hence less hazardous for the open-air drying of grapes in comparison with Septembers from 1890 to 1920.2 It is immediately apparent that temporal variations in the probability of occurrence of adverse weather that run counter to the expectations, fostered by the anomalously good raisin-drying weather in the period of 1920 to 1950, could result in substantial monetary losses, because the decision-making process will incorporate climatic expectations that may no longer be valid. In this article I propose, first, to ascertain whether the ideal raisin-drying weather between 1920 and 1950 has continued and, if not, what variations have occurred. Second, I will evaluate the impact of the variations on the raisin industry.