"The season is expected to start with the harvesting of the first early varieties in mid February, week 7/8," according to Elrita Venter from the company.
"We experienced an abnormal season this far in the sense that we had high temperatures in the Western Cape from Spring and are also experiencing a particularly dry season as well. High temperatures during flowering even caused sunburn in some production sites on flowers, which resulted in malformed fruit. The constant high temperatures from early on in the season could have a conditioning effect on some fruit with a slight tolerance developed against the extreme effects of sunburn but this observation needs to be scientifically confirmed, explained Venter.Typically Acco and Herskovits are more resistant to sunburn effect while the Wonderful variety with its lighter colour is more susceptible.
"We also expect that should the warm weather prevail, we might experience a challenge with colour development in the Wonderful variety. Cooler temperatures towards harvesting is an important factor for colour development in pomegranates. As the Wonderful variety is only harvested a little later, we will have to wait until harvest to understand the full impact."
Franschhoek Marketing exports fruit all over the world and pomegranates mainly to Europe, the Far and Middle East. The company's focus is on fresh pomegranate fruit exports with a significant volume of fruit that is destined for the processing markets in Europe.
For more information:
Elrita VenterFranschhoek Marketing
Tel: +27 21 876 3140/1/2
Email: elrita@freshnessfirst.co.za
www.freshnessfirst.co.za