"We started to harvest Williams on Monday, in all my years in this business I have never known such a late start to the season. The late start is due to an unusually cold and wet Spring which led to a slow growing season.'
There was the added complication of very heavy rain last week which has been damaging to the grape and stonefruit crops, but just served to further delay the pear harvest.
Malan says that there was no actual damage to the pear crop, in fact, "The pears are looking good, although it has been wet we have had no strong winds and December was not too hot."
Packing in the Western Cape started yesterday and Malan expects the first vessel to be on the water by the weekend.
He goes on to say the sizes are surprisingly better than last year.
Cape Supra's biggest export market is Germany followed by the Netherlands, the Middle East is also proving interesting as there is a big demand for small sizes which is in contrast to the European market.
Cape Supra exports over a million boxes of pears each year, 10% of the South African volume.
For more information:
Danie MalanCape Supra
Tel: +27 82 773 8884
Email: dan@capesupra.co.za
www.capesupra.co.za/