“I’ve been farming with guavas with 25 years and I’ve never thrown away a guava, but this season I might just be throwing away guavas,” says a Limpopo grower of a guava season that is presenting difficulties for growers in the south and north of the country, for some different reasons.
The pink Fan Retief guava of the South African industry
In the Western Cape where there are more than 600 hectares, guavas are mostly produced for juice but while the harvest is just halfway through in some parts and earlier still in others (the harvest was late and fruit is small, due to the drought) juice factories will only accept deliveries until quotas are filled. Cape canning factories have already stopped accepting guavas.
According to the Guava Producers’ Association, the contract price for guava juice was fixed at a time when the Rand was stronger, at around R11 to the US$, but the currency has since weakened considerably. In the meantime Brazil has moved into the guava juice space, a situation that will hopefully change again next year, but for now South African juice factories require fewer guavas and are paying between R800 (46.9 euros) to R1,200 (70.37 euros) per tonne, a third to a quarter of the price three years ago.
Locally, juice demand isn’t much better as consumers have to mull over every cent.
The canning industry, for all canning fruit, has been in the doldrums for a while, not only in South Africa but worldwide as there seems to be a move away from canned fruit.
Shelf life impedes fresh marketing of guavas in the Cape
The cultivar planted in the Western Cape, Fan Retief, is prized for its beautiful pink colour and strong flavour, but it has a lot of seeds and poor shelf life. For this reason guava producers can’t easily switch from supplying juice factories to the fresh market. The latter can absorb only about a quarter of a guava farmer’s output, therefore processing is an indispensable part of guava production in the Western Cape.
In Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces guavas are sent for juicing, and after excellent juicing prices three years ago – as high as R3,800 (222.84 euros) per tonne – there was an increase in planting in the north, but this year the juicing sector in the north is also flat. Growers use guava trees as a cash crop in high planting densities on land allocated to macadamia or avocado, while they’re waiting to receive their trees.
Most northern guava production, also of the Fan Retief cultivar, is for the fresh market. Spraying programmes (against fruit fly, for instance) and fertilisation (particularly calcium and potassium) are employed to improve the shelf life of the guava. Fresh market prices are currently roughly between R20 (1.17 euros) and R30 (1.76 euros) per kg according to a Gauteng market agent, but also as low as R6 (0.35 euros) to R15 (0.87 euros)/kg according to producers.
Wilting disease has decimated guava orchards in the north
The fungal disease of wilting disease has played havoc with guava orchards in the north of the country, and even the TSG2 rootstock that proved resistant for a couple of years, was no barrier when the fungus mutated into an even more aggressive strain.
Farmers who plant guavas for an interim income before their macadamia or avocado trees start bearing, accept that the life of the trees could be as little as two years, while other guava farmers have started planting the Lucknow 49 cultivar, imported by India. It is resistant to wilting disease but its drawback is its white flesh which presents growers with a bit of a dilemma as some juicing factories have indicated that they do not want it. Those who have tasted it, commend it for its delicious taste, but it’s uncertain how South African consumers will react to its appearance.
The Western Cape is still free of wilting disease, but to mitigate against its risk the Agricultural Research Institute has started planting trial orchards of possibly resistant varieties.
Young Lucknow 49 guava trees at a nursery