La Rhone is a family-owned stonefruit farm close to the town of Tulbagh, growing plums, peaches, nectarines and prunes on 115ha, all for export through United Exports, Icon Fruit and Core Fruit.
Their first Black Splendor plum harvest recently started. At La Rhone, the stonefruit season is a long one: starting with nectarines and peaches in October and running until April with plums, all packed on the farm.
Apart from plums, which constitute their biggest volumes, still to come this season are nectarines and yellow peaches for domestic consumption and dessert peaches for export.
Most of their stonefruit goes to the European Union and the UK, with limited volumes to the Middle East and the Far East because of reduced access to the Far East due to shipping constraints this season. Container availability remains a constraint.
Similar to stonefruit growers elsewhere in the Cape, they are still waiting for the summer heat that promotes sugar development. Tulbagh can get really hot: temperatures can reach as high as 43°C.
“The weather has been very variable,” says Jolene Lombard of La Rhone. “Unseasonably cool temperatures have been holding back the fruit. We’re still getting rain which has caused water marks on some stonefruit in this region which disqualifies it from exports, but on the whole we’re satisfied with the crop.”
Harvesting nectarines at La Rhone, which has been named a Carbon Hero (photos supplied by La Rhone)
La Rhone doesn’t grow apricots, blueberries or pomegranates, choosing to focus on their core business of plums, peaches and nectarines.
La Rhone has 5.5 hectares of prunes whose harvest start towards the end of January. Last year saw an increase in demand for fresh prunes, but this season the poor access to the Far East has caused a decrease in fresh prune demand.
La Rhone is a designated Carbon Hero
La Rhone has been calculating their carbon footprint with the Confronting Climate Change (CCC) carbon calculator for three consecutive years now and are a designated CCC Carbon Hero.
The CCC Initiative is a carbon footprinting project, developed to support the South African fruit and wine sectors through identifying and responding to the risks and opportunities associated with carbon emissions. The CCC initiative has been managed by Blue North Sustainability since 2011.
Plum blossoms at La Rhone
Three years ago, energy consultancy Blue North Sustainability called for fruit farms to make use of the carbon calculator they had developed. With an eye on the future adoption of a carbon tax, Trudene du Toit, the owner of La Rhone, decided to adopt the carbon calculator early.
“It’s only after three years of measuring a farm’s carbon emissions that you’re really able to see what impact a farm is having on the environment,” explains Jolene Lombard. “We’ve been measuring our carbon emissions for three years and It’s been interesting to see which factors play the largest role, for example diesel transport and packaging.”
A stream running through La Rhone: the Confronting Climate Change (CCC) initiative has been active for ten years in the South African fruit industry
Their plan is to obtain 50% of their electricity from renewable sources such as solar energy. The carbon calculator has shown them that their greatest sources of emissions are fuel, electricity and packaging material.
“The carbon calculator helps us to see where we could improve in terms of fuel and packaging materials," she says. "Overseas clients are becoming very specific about the amount of recycled material in the packaging that we use.”
In order to reduce carbon emission, the transfer to solar energy is currently investigated. The use of recyclable packaging material is a high priority to management, as well as the responsible disposal of waste.
For more information:
Trudene du Toit
La Rhone
Tel: +27 23 230 0632
Email: [email protected]
Carina Wessels
Blue North Sustainability
Tel: +27 82 669 9508
Email: [email protected]
https://bluenorth.co.za/