The stone fruit season has already started in the Western Cape, nectarines have been harvested for a few a weeks now and the season will continue with the other stone fruits and run until mid March.
"We started with nectarines and a week later with plums," explained Marius Voigt from fruit packer Fruit2U Packers. "We are almost finished packing the nectarines, we have less than a week more and then it will be exclusively plums."
According to Marius, nectarines volumes are around what was expected but it is still a bit early to say. Quality and packouts are very good.
"The drought hasn't affected us and we have enough water as we are next to a river and can apply enough water. From our side the climate has been ok. We could do with more rain, but not just now while we are harvesting of course."
The Le Roux Exporters markets the fruit of The Le Roux Group and the stone fruit gets packed at Fruit2U's with most of it going to UK, Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
55-60% of the stone fruit is exported and the rest goes to the domestic market, "We produce for the export market but not all of the fruit is suitable to withstand the rigours of travelling such a long distance," said Marius. "What we send to the domestic market is very good quality fruit, ready to eat, but sometimes too ripe for export. Fruit for export must be slightly firmer."
