By week 12, 9.45 million cartons of pears had been passed for export which represents 60% of the total export estimate. At the moment, the last of Packham’s Triumph, Forelle and Abate Fetel are being harvested.
"We have learned a lot of lessons this year," explained Jaques Du Preez from Hortgro. "One being just how little water we can get by on. New plantings have skewed the figures slightly, but certain areas are down, such as Ceres in the Western Cape, a big pear growing region. The Langkloof region had one of the best seasons in a long while, almost doubling the volumes YTD in week 12 from 760,000 cartons to 1.68 million cartons."
In general it has been an acceptable season given all the climatic challenges. According to Jacques, "We struggled a bit at the start of the season with size and colour, but if you had offered the growers this outcome at the end of last season or the beginning of this one, they would have taken it."
The lack of size and colour didn't effect the markets too much. The harvest started a bit early this year which means the numbers don't correspond exactly with last year's exports to date. Europe and the Middle East are up, but from week 13 the volumes will start to decline. The peak of the season is winding down and the last of the regular packed topfruit are being sent and then it will be fruit from the CA stores which is a much more controlled strategic export.
There is mainly Cripps’Pink/Pink Lady, Cripps’ Red and Fuji left to be harvested for the remainder of the apple season.
Apples also faired better than expected, according to du Preez, "There are more new orchards for apples than for pears and in the Langkloof area apple volumes were up 41% on last year which makes up for the other regions which did a bit less and in general sizes were not too bad."
"Light rainfall over the Easter weekend will help the last apples on a bit, but there is still much more rain needed to fill the dams for next year," said du Preez. "Royal Gala/Gala and African Carmine kicked off exports to China for 2016.”
Africa will be a challenge this year, due to the low oil prices. Topfruit exports to Angola alone were down 70% YTD Week 13. There is risk involved in the African markets, but mainly it’s the lack of buying power and security of payment, and devaluation of applicable trading currencies (including the weaker Rand) vs the US Dollar.
Exports to the UK are down 30% YTD in week 13, this seems to be a growing trend as the Northern Hemisphere season is lasting long each year as companies use better storage technologies.
EU apple stocks at the beginning of March were up 1% on the previous year, making it the highest in the last ten years and Pear stocks were up 4% compared to the same time last year.
For more information:
Jacques du PreezHORTGRO
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +27 82 864 8149
