Wind damage to Midknight Valencias in Eastern Cape

The exceptionally strong winds that swept through the Cape a month ago have left their mark on the citrus orchards of the Eastern Cape, particularly on Midknight Valencias, of which volumes are estimated to be between 500,000 and a million cartons down.

“We had storm-strength winds from the west for 48 hours continuously and this basically burned the trees on their western side to such an extent that leaves fell off, followed by the fruit,” says Deon Joubert, chair of the CGA Valencia variety focus group. “Such strong winds are a rare occurrence, something we see maybe once in twenty years.”

Late navels, primarily Cambria, were less affected. The reasons for the damage on Midknights are due to two factors: citrus trees on the rough lemon rootstock were more protected against the dehydrating effect of the winds due to stronger sap flow, replacing moisture within the leaves and fruit cells, but most Midknights are on Carrizo rootstock. Also, Midknights have large leaves, making them more sensitive to adverse climatic conditions.

It hasn’t been an easy citrus season in the Eastern Cape. Now that the early navels have been picked, the damage due to splitting (due to exceptionally hot and dry conditions during flowering and fruit set) and subsequent opportunistic infections, is calculated at 50% overall. In the Gamtoos Valley which was less affected, the navel crop is about 40% down, while some growers in the Sundays River Valley saw losses of up to 70%.

It is still very dry in the Eastern Cape. Over the past two years they have received less than the annual average rainfall of 400mm. 

On the bright side, the dry conditions mean that the internal quality of the late fruit like Cambria and Midknight is fantastic, with very high brix and good ratios, says Snyman Kritzinger, general manager of Grown4U. Also, night temperatures are sufficiently cold for good colouration.

Valencias are two weeks earlier than usual while it's expected that the lemon harvest will end about a month earlier than other years.

Sizes on lemons are small which, together with large volumes going out, put prices under pressure in markets that take the smaller counts. There is a feeling among some that lemons were picked too fast, without adequate planning to space out the volumes, but volumes have slowed down over the past two or three weeks. 

Lemon marketing has further been complicated by the unusually long season of Verna lemons from Spain on the European market, where supermarkets are only now starting to move over to product from the Southern Hemisphere.

Up to the end of week 26, a million more cartons were packed than in 2016, while 11.9 million x 14 kg cartons have been shipped compared to the 9.6 million cartons this time last year.

In March, the Citrus Growers’ Association estimated a total of 8.7 million cartons of Valencias for the Sundays River Valley and the Gamtoos Valley but this number may now be as low as 7 million cartons. 

Deon Joubert reckons that one can expect a 20% decrease over all citrus varieties in the Eastern Cape this year. At least the more ‘difficult’ varieties are over and the varieties left in this region – Cambrias, Midknights, lemons and Nadorcotts, with a smattering of grapefruit – are traditionally easier fruit to market.

For more information:

Deon Joubert

Tel: +27 74 145 3218

Email: deon@unifrutti.co.za

Snyman Kritzinger

Tel: +27 42 230 0760

Email: snyman@grown4u.co.za