"The growing season has been very hot and dry but the mangos have been under irrigation and so the crop is looking very good. A big hail storm at the end of last year in Hoedspruit, the major producing area in South Africa has left the country short of mangos. ZZ2 however, grow in the Mooketsi area, near Tzaneen so our mangos were undamaged," explained Clive Garrett from the company.
ZZ2 grow Heidi, Kent, Keitt and Tommy Atkins varieties.
In the past South Africa exported a lot of mangos but then the South Americans started growing them and their quality was better, so Europeans moved away from the South African mangos according to Garrett. "It looks like South Africa is slowly coming back and we will be exporting mangos for the first time in years."
The export will be to Europe with volumes of around 100 tonnes of the Kent and Keitt varieties. ZZ2 grows around 4,500 tonnes which will increase in the coming years, "Some of our trees had become a bit neglected in the past, but we have started to look after them better and now the quality is good. We are also starting to replace them with new orchards."
ZZ2 also has cactus pears for the first time this year, "We purchased one of our neighbour's farms but the crops had been neglected a bit, so we have tried to revive them and hope to have a much better crop for next year."
Volume will be low this year at around 50 tonnes, mostly going to the domestic market, but small volumes are being airfreighted to the Europe and the Middle East just to test the markets.
For more information:
Clive
ZZ2
Tel: +27 15 395 8460
Email: cliveg@zz2.biz
www.zz2.biz