South African heatwave disrupts grape exports
"We have not had any rain only extremely hot weather," explains Cecilia van den Hever, Commercial Manager at grower and exporter Pitto. "We have experienced temperatures of above 45 °C everyday for the last three weeks. These temperatures are not unusual at this time of the year, but normally they will dip a bit lower and are not constant."
She explains that the high temperatures have meant that the Thompsons white seedless have all ripened at the same time, "We planned on having white seedless until week 3 or 4 but we already harvested everything last week (WK1), which makes it difficult to deliver fixed programs."
"The bunch weight is definitely lighter than had been expected, and berry size is smaller. There was some really hot weather in September which caused different sized berries in the bunches, there were XL berries along with Large berries on the bunches which meant we had to pack all of these as Large."
"Some white varieties are sensitive and do not store well, especially if you intend to send them to the Canadian or Asian markets which have longer transit times, for Europe you can store for a short period of around a week but most people have sent them instead of storing them," said Cecilia.
Chile and Argentina don't target the European market with their first crop due to the U.S market being really strong. So less from South Africa will lead to lower volumes in Europe.
Cecilia does not expect the early harvest to lead to an initial drop in prices on the European market as the volumes have been slightly light this season, "I expect the prices just to slowly increase over the next few weeks."
Pitto, who are situated in the northern growing region of the Orange River will be finishing up harvesting the Red Globe variety this week. "There are still a few growers in the Orange River harvesting Red Globes but some have found it difficult to get it coloured this season as the fruit needs cooler night temperatures for colouration."
There should be enough water in the Orange River region to see out the season, but in some later areas like Olifant's River and Hex River will run into shortages as the season continues.
The rand is low at the moment which will help in the export but when companies have to by materials to prepare for next year it will be a big disadvantage.
For more information:
Cecilia van den Hever
PITTO (PTY) LTD
T : +27 (0) 54 431 0302
E-mail: marketing1@pitto.co.za
www.pitto.co.za