Citrus growers in Limpopo Province have embarked upon the 2017 Valencia season, South Africa’s second largest citrus variety after soft citrus in terms of acreage. The Valencia estimate for the country predicts that volumes will be 16% higher this year than in 2016, as volumes normalise after the drought and hail in the Hoedspruit region. Thus far, only 900,000 x 15kg cartons of Valencias had been shipped from South Africa by the end of week 24. Last year, Limpopo produced 59% of South Africa’s Valencias.
"The Turkey Valencia harvest resumed two weeks ago and will continue for another two weeks and it's still conforming to the positive outlook with good colour as a result of cold nights," says Cornel van der Merwe, marketing director of the Komati Group. The Komati Group has farms in the Onderberg, Hoedspruit, Letsitele and Burgersfort areas (although Valencias aren’t grown in the latter). Valencias contribute about half of the Komati Group’s production.
“The drought definitely still has an effect, particularly on the seedless Delta which showed poor fruit set on some farms in the Onderberg area that experienced water stress, but we expect an average sized harvest with some tendency towards larger sizes,” he continues.
The company still has Star Ruby grapefruit, which fit nicely into the gap between Turkey Valencias and the large volumes of Midknights and Deltas which will be spread out during the next month, in order to give relief to the markets.
The Valencia season runs until September. It is a popular fruit in China, Korea and Japan where it is prized for its colour, roundness and juicy taste. “Between 15 and 20% of the Valencias are sent to the Far East. Initially there was some concern around the Turkey’s ability to withstand cold steri treatment, as it’s a newer variety, but it has since appeared that the fruit on older trees is stronger and better able to handle cold treatment.”
Russia is a big market for South African Valencias, taking some 20% of the Valencias produced by the Komati Group. Should sizes be larger overall (due to lower fruit set of particularly the seedless Delta variety - thus smaller yields), this market could absorb those counts.
The majority of the Valencias marketed by the Komati Group is still destined for UK and EU supermarket programmes, running to approximately half of its volumes.
By the end of week 24, 2.8 million 14kg cartons of Valencias had been packed by the overall industry, well up from last year when the number stood at 1.6 million cartons at the same point in time.
For more information:
Cornel van der Merwe
Komati Group
Tel: +27 15 345 8500
Email: cornel@bosveldsitrus.co.za