The 2011 volume of South African table grapes packed for export markets will be less than 50m cartons – some four million cartons short of last year’s export crop of 53.1m cartons.
Up to week 17 figures of the volumes actually shipped through the country’s ports showed a marked reduction on last year. However, SATI said that for various reasons the shipped volume is always somewhat less than the volumes packed for the export market and inspected by the PPECB.
It said a process of reconciling volumes is now underway and that the accurate figures for the volume shipped will be released soon.
The exported volumes reported show a marked change in shipping patterns compared with last season.
Out of 44.2m cartons shipped reported on so far, there were sharp reductions in shipments to the United Kingdom, Northern Europe and the Middle East.
At the same time shipments to South East Asia increased substantially.
The UK received nearly 3m cartons less this year and Northern Europe 4m cartons less.
The South East Asian volumes increased by one million cartons to 5.8m cartons. Among them was the first ever shipment of South African grapes to Japan.
The current discrepancy between the volumes packed for the export market and those shipped may also reflect bigger sales into Africa via the South African Customs Union countries.These volumes will not pass through the ports and are not normally recorded.
More grapes originally packed for export probably also ended up on the local market, with growers deciding not to risk incurring export costs with product which may have had reduced shelf life due to difficult climatic conditions.
The grapes sold inside South Africa are not included in SATI figures of export shipments.
Despite the early predictions of a significantly reduced crop in the Hex River Valley, SATI’s forecast indicates that the region will still pack more than 18m cartons. With one week of packing left the Hex River Valley crop is slightly short on last year’s export pack of 18.4m cartons.
The Berg River region packed nearly 12m cartons and is the only South African region that packed more than last year.
Rain bedeviled growers in the northern and Orange River regions, with the Orange River packing some 3m cartons less than last year and the northern region nearly a million cartons less.
