"With good conditions in the next days & weeks the early part of the crop in our case looks to be a similar size, quality and volume development to last year," Bernd explains, but that generally, reports are that the crop is down on last year.
He does not expect to suffer the extreme sunburn issues, which shortened and abruptly ended the season for many of the early growers by week 50/51 last year.
Growers had switched the bulk of their volumes to sea freight – but volumes dried up very quickly due to sunburn suffered due to extreme heat and dry conditions in late Nov / early Dec.
"With the excellent rains experienced in October this year, we hope to avoid a repeat of such sunburn this year and are confident of the usual good quality and size associated with South African litchi."
For more information:
Bernd Julicher
AgriLink
Tel: 0027 11 390 2366
Email: bernd@agrilink.co.za
www.intertrading.co.za