Early top fruit season South Africa

Both the apple and the pear season are underway in South Africa and running 7-14 days early. Jacques du Preez from HortGro said that so far it has been good, "There is a bit of a challenge for the fruit size in the early part of the season, but no disastrous weather conditions so far. A bit of hail in the Langkloof where some farmers lost a lot, but nothing compared to the hail damage the previous year. Current temperatures are hot, but again nothing detrimental."

Du Preez said although it's still early days, there are record apple stocks in Europe and pear stocks are also high, add to this the Russian ban and one can assume that it will be rather difficult.

Africa became the biggest export market for South Africa during 2014 (32% of shipments) and du Preez said this will continue to grow. This will be the first season that South African apples will have access to China and the first shipment of apples should leave in the next month or two. Du Preez warns that marketers will need to apply their minds and strategies this year when placing fruit.

"Due to the early nature of the season fruit will tend to be slightly smaller – but this will hopefully only apply to the early part of the season," explains du Preez.