"We started with late Navel varieties last week and are in full swing with Orr and Mor mandarins varieties," explains Hendrick Warnich, from ALG Estates in Citrusdal, South Africa.
"Volumes of early soft citrus were up a bit but mandarins may be less due to an alternative year, but new orchards coming into production will balance supply. We just started harvesting Valencias and volume on both Valencias and Navels may be slightly down."
Lemons are now finished in the Western Cape, they saw a very good crop with nice prices in most markets, but the European markets really stood out this season.
US market could have been more positive, according to Hendrik, "We will be looking to see how the sales are in the coming weeks. We hope it will pick up quickly in the weeks going forward."
The US stayed a bit longer on its local products and South Africa was a bit earlier with more volumes than normal, there also seems to be more coming from South America than normal.
The EU is a bit over supplied on big fruit at the moment but short on smaller sizes. This could be due to the fact that the northern regions of South Africa had a lot of big fruit.
The Middle East market is still strong and hasn't shown any signs of slowing down and prices are still good. Fears earlier in the season that the market would be flooded with small and medium sized fruit have not materialised as yet.
One problem facing South African exporters at the moment is the exchange rate. The Pound has significantly dropped against the Rand since the Brexit referendum.
On a more positive note, fears of a continued dry winter have been dispelled as after an initially dry Autumn, the rains came allowing the dams and rivers in the Western Cape to fill up and it is looking very positive again, according to Hendrik.
For more information:
Hendrick WarnichALG Estates
Tel: +27 229213439
Email: hendrik@algestates.com
www.algestates.com