Citrus brand closing the gap on year round supply

These days we are accustomed to having every kind of fruit and vegetable on the shelves all year round. Companies are trying their hardest to keep our favourite variety of apple or orange available as production moves between the hemispheres.

ClemenGold has almost reached this goal. "The Spanish supply will continue until week 12 -13 and then there will be a gap before we start from South Africa in week 24," explains Nico van Staden from CoreFruit."

"We do now have an early variety, Leandri that is about two weeks earlier than the Nadorcotts, we just have to make sure it will make the ClemenGold standards and then it will lengthen the season and there will be only a small gap in supply."

The new variety will have good commercial volumes this year, it just need to pass the ClemenGold test.

"We cover the whole of the country starting in the north and ending in the Cape, which gives us the most out of the South African season," said Nico.

"In the north water is fine, there could potentially be a problem in the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape is problematic, but we are hoping for some rain. The winter rainfall may start in May, but more likely June, July and August."

The prolonged drought is already having an effect on production, it can be seen on the grape production, the estimates have been lowered a few times now and Nico reckons this will be the same for the stone and top fruit volumes.

"We have just started to harvest our apples, but on pears we can see that there are a lot of small sizes. We are still unsure of how the season will go, it all depends on if the underground water will keep as this is what growers are relying on now. So if the boreholes are sufficient then we will bring in the crop."

But this situation is not a surprise to the growers or the buyers, Nico said that communication is vital. Core Fruit are lucky to have growers all over the country so they can spread their risk, but people who only grow in one area you could be in trouble.

"Week 10 will see the start of the avocado harvest and we are looking at a very good crop, so as long as the weather holds it should be good and market demand is increasing 20-30% year on year."

For more information:
For more information:

Nico van Staden
Core Fruit
Tel: +27 21 863 6312
Email: nico@corefruit.com
www.corefruit.com