What does a grape farm do in its third year of drought, after receiving 36.6mm of rainfall since January, with water allocation cut from 12,500 m3/ha to 1,700m3/ha?
It takes some bold action: it decides to take out 75ha of vineyards. “We made the decision already before this past poor winter. We did our sums and we set a weekly limit for ourselves. During the heat wave two weeks ago we couldn’t increase irrigation, we just don’t have the water if we want to make it through this season,” explains Servaas Badenhorst, general manager of Sigma Boerdery in Trawal, north of Clanwilliam.
“We have water until mid-February, enough to get us through the harvest.”
The removal of vineyards that in actual fact were being cross-subsidised by other blocks, or were just breaking even, provided them with a chance to rejuvenate the farm. “We started with the Autumn Royal, it just didn’t work on this farm. It makes hens and chicks, causing us double the labour to cut out smaller berries. Then we took out some old Red Globe, some old Thompson, the Krissy which we tried as a substitute for Flame.”
“We re-established some 12ha of young vines,” continues Stefan Bothma, production manager on the farm, part of the Grape Alliance group, “not to fall behind because we’ve been set back four or five years with the drought and the removals.”
Servaas says that he reckoned that young vines use little water, and anyway, they’re still searching for a cultivar in the early red and the late black slots.
New plantings, despite the drought, to offset the removal of non-economic cultivars
They’ve planted Arra15 in place of old Thompson and Arra29 as possible replacement for Flame and Starlight. “Arra29 does really well at Aussenkehr. Starlight is bitterly high on labour and cutting. And Flame – when Flame doesn’t crack, it’s a really nice grape. With us, one year it cracks, and one year it doesn’t, and we don’t get rain at this time so it’s not that. We’ve been doing a bit of experimentation on Flame. This year we pruned it later and we’ve adapted our Etaphon application to lessen the acidifying effect of the chemical on the irrigation water and so far, so good – no cracking so far.”
They started picking Flame by the end of last week. Normally their Flame would follow that of Aussenkehr but with the delays this year in the north, there’s some overlap.
The day before harvesting this block of Flame
Given the climatic circumstances, their focus on the remaining acreage of 155ha seems to be paying off. Prime and Starlight have been harvested, Ralli looks very good, Red Globe did too, until the heatwave of two weeks ago, but they hope to still get about 60% of the Red Globe harvest.
Crimson
There are 60ha of Crimson on the farm, producing about 250,000 cartons annually on the farm, and it looks like this year will be no different. “Crimson never gives trouble, everyone knows the grape, it keeps well in cold rooms, so you always get your money on Crimson,” says Servaas Badenhorst. “And it’s an open variety, so that’s why we’re fond of Crimson.” Sigma Boerdery’s Crimson harvest starts in week 2 running until week 6 or 7. When the farm is moving to Crimson, the Hex River’s Flame is coming in.
Another mid-season red on the farm is Sunred Seedless, a cultivar that’s fallen out of favour elsewhere. “Yes, Sunred Speedless,” Servaas laughs. “Here, it is under our top three every year. We’re waiting for it to perform badly but so far it never disappoints. It obtains better prices than Flame coming from the Hex River.”
It has been decided to focus on a limited bouquet of cultivars at Sigma Boerdery, in large blocks of 16ha each. Sigma Boerdery is divided into three parts, each with its own manager and each carrying only four or five cultivars.
Grapes are packed on the farm; their packhouse has a daily capacity of 25,000 cartons.
Servaas Badenhorst, general manager at Sigma Boerdery, with Charlie Tieties, assistant manager, the day before these Flame grapes are picked
Constancy preferred in their grape marketing
He appreciates the marketing independence that comes from being part of a producer-exporter like the Cape Orchard Company/Grape Alliance. Constancy is their guiding principle: stable supermarket programmes with Tesco, Lidl, Kaufland, rather than riding the waves of commodity trading. Europe is therefore still their main focus, supplemented by other destinations like Malaysia, the Middle East, Russia, Mauritius and North Africa, as well as Canada, a fairly new and very promising market for them. “After last year I’m a bit wary of the Far East,” he says. “They pay a good price but last year they were flooded with grapes, everyone sent there. And they want perfect product. If the grapes aren’t perfect, they’ll rather buy cherries.”
Figures from the South African Table Grape Industry organisation show that grape volumes to the Far East shot up from 2.3 million 4.5kg equivalent cartons during the 2015/16 season to 4.8 million cartons last year.
Nowhere is the drought more severe than here in the Olifants River region. Boreholes, the salvation of the Hex River Valley, aren’t an option here because the water is brackish. Servaas Badenhorst admits it’s sometimes difficult to remain upbeat during this protracted drought, in this rather isolated area, but for the moment, their concerted efforts and courage to take drastic action are pulling them through.
For more information:

Servaas Badenhorst
Sigma Boerdery
Tel: +27 27 216 1661