Increased plantings of lemons and late mandarins are the main reasons for the rapid expansion of the South African citrus sector.
The late mandarin sector is fairly well established, and while earlier varieties are being established that will allow South Africans to enter the market earlier, there is also a constant search for better clementine varieties for the early season.
Citrus Growers’ Association spokesman Justin Chadwick previously told FPJ that South Africa needs to improve its soft citrus offer in the early season. “We are very much in the same position as the Spanish growers in their early season when they have to compete with our late mandarins. Consumers want excellent varieties and we will all benefit from working on this,” he said.
One such early citrus variety is Clemenluz, an early Clemenules type that ripens around three weeks earlier. It was developed in Chile with South Africa’s Stargrow Group commercialising it in South Africa. As it is seedless, it may form an important part of the early South African offer.
ClemenGold has become a well-known South African citrus brand in the UK, and volumes are expected to increase this year. However, so will volumes of Tango, for which plant breeders’ rights were granted in South Africa a few years ago. It has already been strongly promoted inside South Africa, where it had a good reception from consumers.
The growth of production in lemons is so big worldwide that the South African industry has recently been encouraged to work with other lemon producers in the world to stimulate demand. A work group of the CGA has also already engaged other producer countries to introduce such programmes.
This is expected to be a long and hard battle. Even inside South Africa grower groupings have not been keen on joint promotions, which were abandoned on the deregulation of the industry more than 20 years ago.
Most likely one would see improvements in the lemon category that would find favour among consumers. South African citrus group ANB Investments – which is also the owner of the ClemenGold brand - is in the process of testing seedless varieties that are already being offered under the Gold brand and is likely to be called LemonGold.
Despite the decline in grapefruit consumption in the UK and Europe, South Africa has seen a dramatic increase in production. However, it is debatable whether the record crop has put more money in the pockets of growers. South Africa is now just about the only southern hemisphere exporter of grapefruit, and if the growers work together to handle the category properly there is no reason why fortunes will not improve soon.
Valencia and Navel oranges contribute around 50 per cent of the annual southern African export crop. The Valencia season only starts in July and dominates the late market.
