In the Western Cape where citrus producers are packing late navels, soft citrus like Fairchild and Valley Gold, with a bit of lemons, harvesting has ceased as the southwestern part of the province experiences a winter as it's supposed to be: icy and very wet.
Citrusdal has recorded 35mm over the past 24 hours, while it has been raining more or less continuously since the end of last week (right: Citrusdal orchard after recent rains).
Around Stellenbosch well over 100mm has fallen over the past few days and dams like the Clanwilliam Dam (only 23% full) are set to benefit from this rain.
The Olifants River coming down fast
Many Citrusdal packhouses had volumes in their cold stores that have kept them busy for the first part of the week while rain disrupted actual harvesting.
By next week, a number have indicated that they'll be picking navels like Bahianinhas and Palmers on colour directly from the orchard; the fruit are now well-coloured, and some should've been off the trees by now.
Today: a farm bridge over the Olifants River outside Citrusdal, Western Cape
Very good navel season
Lemons are also packed directly from the orchard. By next week the first of the late mandarin varieties will start in Citrusdal.
It's been a very good navel season thus far, even if fruit has been an average of two weeks late in this area as colouring took a while to develop, but the temperatures accompanying the cold fronts coming in from the western Atlantic Ocean this week will help the process along nicely.
Satsumas were also two weeks late, which had a gradual effect on the subsequent varieties.
