South African table grape shipments are now only slightly behind last year’s total up to week 4, showing a vastly different picture to that reported at the end of week 2.
The South African Table Grape Industry (SATI) says this correction was necessitated by an omission in the grape export statistics supplied by PPECB, which is SATI’s contracted service provider.
“The PPECB reporting system has been rectified and preventative measures have been put in place (to avoid the same mistake happening again),” says a SATI statement. “SATI apologises for any inconvenience that this might have caused and assures you of our continued commitment to an accurate information service.”
SATI previously reported that up to week 2, total shipments were down 33 per cent compared with the previous year. Only 10.7m cartons had been shipped compared with 16m cartons the previous year – showing that this season’s shipments were 48 per cent lower than those at the same stage of the season in 2012, and 43 per cent less than the shipments up to week 2 in 2011.
However, up to week 4, 22.123m cartons had been shipped, compared with 23.248m at the same time last year. Although this figure is still some 4.5m cartons less than 2011/12, it shows a vastly different picture from two weeks ago.
Northern Europe actually received more grapes than at the same time last year, while shipments to the UK were only 800,000 cartons less than in week 4 on 2012. With 95 per cent of the grapes in the Orange River reported to have been packed by the end of week 4, growers from that region have packed 14.5m cartons. Two weeks ago it was reported that the harvest from this region would probably not reach 13m cartons.
The update figures also show a marked increase in shipments to the east compared to the same time last season. At the end of week 4, 1.6m cartons had been shipped compared with last year’s one million cartons.
Observers say that the updated figures shows that the industry is now beginning to catch up on last year after a late start and bad weather hampered packing activities during the early season.
