THERE'S an air of excitement building among table grape growers in Victoria's northwest.

Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service officials have begun auditing the more than 200 growers from Robinvale and Mildura who expressed interest in exporting grapes to China this season.

And Chinese government officials are due to visit the area later this month to verify pest monitoring, oversee field-packing of grapes and check paperwork.

Once they are satisfied, import permits will be issued allowing the first official direct exports of Australian table grapes to China, possibly as soon as next month.

Despite the huge potential, estimated at $50-$100 million, Australian Table Grape Association chairman Nick Muraca said volumes were likely to be small in the first year.

"All we're trying to do this year is introduce our product to them, get them to see it, taste it," he said.

"I would assume there will only be very small amounts done, just to try and set it up, so that in a year or two everyone's got the confidence to do a bit more.

"There's still a few things that need to be ticked off, but everything's going to plan."

Mr Muraca said interested growers had attended workshops run by the ATGA, AQIS and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, but not all would go on to export grapes to China.

"Showing interest is one thing, but actually doing all the paperwork and going through with it is another," he said.

Mr Muraca said it had taken eight years of negotiation by government and industry to produce acceptable quarantine conditions, which would allow in-field packing of grapes and in-transit cold treatment for Queensland fruit fly.

Chinese buyers were mostly keen on crimson seedless grapes, although there also had been some interest in red globe and thompson seedless.

Mr Muraca said most of the region's table grape crops had not been badly affected by the wet spring and summer that had caused devastating outbreaks of downy mildew in wine and dried grapes.

The importance of visual appearance and presentation to table grape quality meant growers were vigilant and tended to apply more frequent preventative fungicidal sprays.

"That reduced the risk," he said. "There have been some isolated problems, but it's nowhere near as bad as it is with the wine industry in terms of disease."

According to the DPI, the region produces 80,000 tonnes of late-season table grapes worth about $135 million each year.