Grape prices in the Finger Lakes in 2011 continued a frustrating pattern for growers, with prices for the majority of the varieties that we reported on this year remaining flat or pushing downward. While it is possible that this was partially in response to anticipation of a larger than normal crop, the trend seems puzzling especially when you consider that the "word on the street" as we approached harvest was that some buyers were having difficulty finding enough fruit for certain varieties.

But whatever the reasons, the fact still remains that grape prices, according to our annual grape price listing, remained essentially flat, with the notable exception of white vinifera varieties, which all saw fairly substantial decreases in prices this year.

On the positive end, most fruit was able to be sold this year - another indication that the surplus that caused some buyers to scale back or eliminate their grape purchases a couple of years ago has eased. Some blocks of bulk hybrid and native varieties, like Catawba, ended up not being picked primarily because of the high yields that many of these varieties pushed out this year, and buyers were not able to accommodate all of the fruit.

In addition to average, high and low prices for the varieties listed, we include the number of buyers of each variety from last year and this year to give a sense of the market for those varieties. In fourteen cases, the number of buyers for a particular variety fell by two or more compared to 2010. Most of these circumstances can be explained by the fact that five fewer wineries supplied their prices to the FLGP this year than last (with one new winery reporting their prices this year).

The information in this analysis, and the accompanying table, is based on price lists submitted to the Department of Agriculture and Markets and voluntarily submitted to the FLGP by participating grape buyers. This data does not take into account the number of tons purchased by any specific buyer, and therefore may not reflect the "true" average price of particular varieties.