It has been a slow start for stonefruit, but prospects remain good for the early season. South African stonefruit and table grape exporters have said that early season volumes are picking up after slow start, while the conventional reefer shipping programme from the country will kick in this week.
Stonefruit harvesting is increasing after some frost damage, growers noted, while packing in the Northern and Orange River table grape regions is also gaining momentum.
It has also been revealed that the first vessel of a more than two month-long weekly specialist conventional reefer shipping programme is due to load in Cape Town this week.
The reefer programme is viewed as an alternative to container shipments and will relieve pressure on Cape Town’s Container Terminal.
The first significant shipments of containers through the port of Walvis Bay from Namibia’s Aussenkehr region left this past weekend, while Orange River grape shipments are mostly directed through the port of Cape Town.
Observers have said that supplies to the UK and Europe should increase significantly from the second week of December.
The five month-long Southern African table grape season is therefore now well underway and exporters are quietly confident that they will experience another strong early market.
The early market for stonefruit has been positive, mainly also due to a somewhat slow start.
Lohan Marais of Icon Fruit said that frost affected the early season, but prospects for the rest of the season for all stonefruit categories were good.
“The market is currently strong and the early season will benefit from this,” he said. ”The start of the season was delayed mainly because of the early frost problems.”
Innovation will assist the grape sector in countering the logistical problems that have dogged the export industry over the past few years.
While some problems are expected to continue in the port of Cape Town, steps undertaken now will result in improvements over the next few years.
This will be to the benefit of growers in the early season who have been severely affected in the past.
The possibility of a short supply of Californian grapes following their summer heatwaves is expected to redirect more Peruvian grapes in the early South African season to North America.
This may be to advantage of the Southern Africans in Europe and the UK, and lead to a strong opening market leading up to Christmas.
