At present Valencias are in the process of being harvested in South Africa. In the Western Cape harvesting has just started, but in the Northern areas it is coming to the end of the season. The Western Cape will be busy for at least the next six weeks.
According to Gabrie van Eeden from Goede Hoop Citrus, the Western Cape Navel season has been characterised by very good internal quality.
“It’s probably the best we’ve seen in years. The fruit size was good, although we had a little bit of a challenge with rain this season. All in all I think it was a good season, fruit wise.”
“The Navel volumes have been a bit less than in previous years and the reason being the cyclical nature of the citrus fruit industry. I think that next season we will see the reverse and a bigger Navel crop is expected. The predictions are that we will experience a normal Valencia season for the country.”
On average, the size of Navels has been a little bigger, whereas the size of the Valencias is average.
“I don’t see any challenges with regards to fruit sizing, but as a result of a very early Navel season we understand that some of our clients abroad are running out of stock. If I was to be an importer I would make sure to place orders in South Africa as quickly as possible because the fruit will run out soon. The fruit is of good quality but the stock is limited. It’s a normal season as far as picking and packing is concerned, but buyers should place their orders as I doubt whether there will be abundant fruit available that is not committed to programmes. To add to that, we as an industry still await the outcome of the CBS issue, so from a European importer’s point of view, I think they need to firm up their volumes.“
“The European prices are strong. This season has been one of the better seasons for South Africa in Europe," explains Gabrie.
He reckons the reason for that is the fact that Spain was out of the market early, so South Africa entered a relatively empty market and then California was also out of the picture. The situation in Russia is currently risky for us as the Russian economy is below par. We are aware that a couple of million cartons originally went to Russia, but with the current prices and exchange rate that’s going to be a challenge for us.”
South Africa, and more specifically the Western Cape, has also been exporting to the United States, and it has been a very satisfactory and fruitful season.
“Fortunately for us, we had a very early start to the season in the US and with California out of the market we started early with a fairly large volume. In my opinion the prices are down in dollars compared to last year, but the sales tempo is good. Prices were stable and from the outset until now there have not been negative price fluctuations. We foresee that the volumes in the US will run out early and the Navel volumes will most probably be depleted before our Midknights arrive in the USA. So we expect an increase in pricing until the end of the season.”
The easy-peeler (soft citrus) market was also strong and is expanding, not only in the US, there is growth all over the world. This tendency is largely due to the general change in eating habits, parents who persuade their children to eat more healthy and fresh food as well as influential people like Michelle Obama who publicly supports the drive to fight obesity.
South Africa is not rich in water resources therefore not all of the changes in the hectares are necessarily horizontal growth. Some of it is shuffling in the varieties, so you will see a lot of the older and traditional varieties, like the orange varieties, being replaced by soft citrus or newer Navel varieties.
“Some grapefruit orchards are also being taken out and lemons trees are planted to replace it. I think there is strong growth in South Africa, both in terms of an increase in the number of trees and in the re-compilation of the cultivar basket.
“I am of the opinion that there are still excellent opportunities in the market if the market growth in the Far East is considered. As for South Africa we’ve only just started to explore and penetrate new markets like India, Indonesia, and China etc. We can expect that there will be rapid growth in markets outside of Europe which holds exciting opportunities for both South Africa and the growing Peruvian production areas. I think there are still some very good opportunities, Van Eeden concluded.”
