The South African lemon season, consisting of predominantly Eureka lemons, began in early February in the Limpopo River region, as well as in the Hoedspruit area. At this very early stage, the harvest looks satisfactory and, contrary to other sectors of agriculture, was not adversely affected by the heavy rains of the past few weeks. “The rains in fact helped us, as sizes were a bit small before, but improved due to the good rains,” says Fanie Meyer as the Citrus Growers Association's Hoedspruit representative.
However, harvesting had to be put on hold during the rains to avoid oleo (oil spotting), when oil released from the rind oil glands stains the fruit.
Last year the Hoedspruit area produced 9 000t (605 413 cartons of 15kg) of lemons and the Limpopo River area produced 5 500t (365 464 cartons). Much of South Africa’s lemon crop originates from the Sunday River Valley in the Eastern Cape (46%), followed by the Senwes region (Groblersdal and Marble Hall). The latter region expects a good harvest this year, with a crop estimate of 8 million cartons, well up from 6.9 million cartons last year.
Two-thirds of the South African lemon harvest is exported. Of the remainder, 200 000t goes for processing and 10 000t is sold as fresh produce. The 2016 export volume was almost exactly the same as the 2015 volume: 15.1 million cartons. A large proportion (6.4 million cartons) went to the Middle East which prefers smaller-sized fruit, which was fortuitous as fruit sizes were small last year due to the drought. Substantial volumes went to Russia (where consumers prefer a larger fruit) and to Southeast Asia, which has a preference for oval-shaped fruit, because it provides more slices per fruit, although both these markets were down from the previous year.
According to Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers Association: “Lemon exports from southern Africa to Europe and the UK both increased substantially; for Europe from 2.3 million (2015) to 3.4 million; and for the UK from 0.9 million (2015) to 1.3 million cartons in 2016.”
The Senwes region will start harvesting in two to three weeks’ time (week 12). Lemons from the Sunday River Valley are harvested from about week 18. Growers in both areas have increased their lemon orchards.
For more information:
Justin Chadwick
Citrus Growers Association
Tel: +27 (0) 31 765 2514
Email: justchad@iafrica.com
Fanie Meyer
Citrus Growers Association
Tel: +27 15 795 5104
Email: Fanie@unifrutti.co.za