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Concord juice is unique and costs processors a lot of money for refrigerated tank storage. This is the only juice I'm aware of that can't be concentrated and used soon after pressing. Apple, Citrus, and Berry can be pressed today and bottled or concentrated today or tomorrow.

Concord contains potassium salts commonly called tartrates that won't filert or centrifuge out. Must be allowed to settle out by gravity ­ minimum of 6 weeks, before it's detartrated and ready to use. Otherwise will have sediment in the bottom of the bottle of juice and the jelly will be a little grainy

Average Concord processor will get 185-190 gallons of ready to use single strength juice per ton of grapes, after settling, regardless of the brix of the grapes. Will get about 34.38 gallons of 68° brix concentrate per ton depending on brix of single strength juice. The higher the brix of juice, the more gallons of concentrate and vise versa. Washington growers and processors have an advantage over Eastern since the average brix of the crops here is higher than the East so get more gallons per ton. That advantage has some offsets, which I'll discuss later.

Those are some facts you may not have heard and independent thinkers can use to decide whether to have your grapes turned into concentrate. The opportunity for custom processing exists. Quotes range from $100-iso per ton to turn your grapes into 68° brix concentrate in drums. Suggest you use a quality processor and have a plan for selling it. You probably should find yourself a good broker. More done here than anywhere - standard cost $120 per ton.

Buyers of bulk Concord products are several hundred companies that make a wide variety of grape related wholesale or retail products.

Our function as a broker is to try to find buyers for those companies or growers that sell the bulk products and to provide a service to the buyers by helping them locate the type and quality of product they want.

If we put the buyer and seller together, we formalize the deal with a purchase order or contract, follow the withdrawal of the product which may extend over several months, may provide some technical service, arbitrate any disputes between the seller and buyer and receive a commission from the seller after he has been paid for the product.

This is not an easy field to break into - very competitive - there are many other brokers with established relationships.

Some brokers will take possession of the product and re-sell at a marked-up price. We've moved into that area to a degree. More profit opportunity but a lot more risky.

We started with 2 product lines - Concord and Red Vinifera Grape Concentrates. We now handle the full line of bulk fruit juices, fruit concentrates, fruit purees, fruit essences and frozen fruits - both domestic and imported. We have a commercial office, one of my sons working with me, a professional office manager-;secretary, and my wife is our bookkeeper and works nearly full time and we are very busy. It has been a tremendous learning experience and we are still learning new things every week. Last week we had a call for Pitayaha Puree - from cactus buds and my son located a source in New Mexico.

About 40% of our volume still involves Concord products so I have stayed very close to the Concord industry. We publish a newsletter once per year describing what's happening in the Concord industry as well as quoting other products such as Apple and other concentrates. Our mailing list now includes about 1400 companies in the US, Canada, and about 40 offshore countries.

One of the great strengths of the Concord variety is that it's the most versatile in its uses of all the hundreds of varieties of grapes grown in the world. Most varieties are used for wine only. A few for table grapes - very few for juice. The Thompson seedless is a distant second to Concord in its uses - table, canned and frozen individual grapes, white concentrate used as a sugar replacement or extender in other canned products and juices, wine blender and sweetener, but it has bland flavor and neutral color.

The Concord has a strong, unique, foxy flavor and deep purple color. Its uses are: table grapes, jelly, jam, straight or sparkling juice, drinks diluted 50% or more with water, ades diluted with up to 98% water and sugar, drink bases, soda pop, frozen and shelf stable concentrate which the housewife dilutes with water, frozen bars and slush, ice cream topping, yogurt base, pie mix, powders and crystals.

Listen carefully - it may be blended heavily with Vinifera Grape concentrates, both red and white, and still maintain some Concord flavor.

Eastern growers and processors have the advantage over you here in Washington because their Concord juice has higher acid, deeper color and stronger flavor so they can blend higher percentages of cheaper concentrates than you can. The reasons acid is lower here vs. the East are 2-fold, primarily because the pH of the soil here is neutral, about 7, whereas the Eastern vineyard soils are acidic - about pH 5.5. But also because you tend to harvest at a higher brix which reduces the acid. As the brix goes up the acid goes down, as does the flavor. Your juice is preferred by many. Because of the lower acid, it is more mellow - Eastern is astringent. I will mention this in my conclusion.

Concord is also mixed with several fruit juices such as Cranberry, Apple and Pear to produce blended juices and concentrates. New uses are still being developed.

In the wine industry as well, the Concord is surprisingly versatile. It is used for popular table and dessert wines, for making port, sherry and champagnes in red, pink and white. It is an ingredient in wine coolers and is used as a blender for several other types of wines, particularly if harvested immature at high acid.

In addition to its many uses, which indicates strong sales potential, the Concord is practically a specialty crop. Of over 5 mm tons of grapes produced in the US alone, only about 5-7% is Concords. This is because of the limitation on where they can be grown successfully and there is not much worry about expansion outside their current production areas because Concords require about a 180 day frost-free growing season which eliminates most Northern areas. They also require about a 40 day rest period brought on by freezing weather, which eliminates the entire South, including California. The only expansion area and hope for expanding the total US industry tonnage is here in Washington where there are thousands of acres of excellent vineyard sites.

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