While the first winter rains brought colder weather to South Africa's Western Cape and are expected to enhance the colour of the country’s summer citrus harvest, the first shipments of new-season fruit have left Cape Town for the US.
At the same time, the Western Cape Citrus Producers' Forum (WCCPF) confirmed its earlier crop forecast which will see growers in the Western and Northern Cape regions increasing their volumes to the US this year.
Climatic conditions have been excellent during the growingseason, highlighted by early fruit that has already been packed andshipped. Returning from a visit to growers in the NorthernCape, WCCPF Managing Director Piet Smit said the colour of early Navels is very good. 'We are also pleased with the internal eatingquality – the emphasis we have placed on quality this season ispaying off.'
The forecast indicated that the country will ship more soft citrus to the US this season, while Navels will be slightly down on last year and Midnight Valencias at stable levels. In the soft citrus category there is expected to be major growth in late mandarins, while more clementines will also be exported.
The new-season forecast for clementines is 2m cartons, with late mandarins set to top 1m cartons for the first time. Shipments of Navels will be around 1.6m cartons and Midnight Valencias just over 350 000 cartons.
Maersk Jambi, the first citrus-carrying container vessel of the season holding 10 containers of Navels and clementines, sailed from Cape Town this week (7 May) and is due to arrive in Newark at the end of the month. From there, the fruit will be transferred by road to Philadelphia where importers are eagerly awaiting the start of the season.
The next container vessel, MCS Voyager, will sail from Cape Town on 17 May with 18 containers of clementines and Navels. The first conventional vessel is due to load in Cape Town on 28 May and sail on 31 May. The vessel is set to ship over 3,000 pallets and will be the first big arrivals of the season.
While greater use of containers is very much part of the future of shipments to the US, this season will be dominated by conventional shipments after the South Africans encountered major problems with container shipments to the US last year.
