South Africa experienced an unusually cool spring this year, and although this had the effect of delaying the harvest by 10 days, growers from all the production regions are reporting that the cool autumn evenings have been beneficial for good colour development on the oranges.
“This year, the harvest in the Sunday’s River is likely to yield similar volumes as last year,” says Pieter Nortje, a director of Citrus Growers’ Association of South Africa (CGA). “The colour development of our fruit is particularly good this year and the fruit size is also good. Our lemon harvest is well underway and the fruit is healthy and has a good size. We hope that the current good prices for lemons will translate into good returns for producers.”
Since the beginning of 2008, the South African rand (ZAR) has weakened by around 25 per cent against the euro, which is good news for returns to growers and shippers. It is, however, very important to counter this with caution regarding the sharp rise in production and transport costs. “Besides the exorbitant price of fuel, fertiliser prices, chemical prices and other input prices are currently at all-time highs, thus compounding the increase in production costs,” says Justin Chadwick, chief executive of CGA. “This could potentially make it difficult for some of our markets to afford our fruit,” he adds.
The earliest citrus produced in South Africa are lemons and this year’s harvest is likely to be of a similar size to last year. Although lemon production starts at the end of February, traditionally lemons are largely shipped to markets other than northern Europe until May, to allow these markets to first clear the bulk of their northern-hemisphere supplies.
This year, however, the picture is quite different as there has been a shortage of lemons due to a much reduced Spanish crop. “At the same time last year, we had exported around four per cent of our harvest to Europe and the UK, but this year that total is closer to 23 per cent,” says Chadwick. In past seasons, the oversupply and continued presence of Spanish lemons late into the season on the European and UK markets severely depressed the selling price of South African and other southern-hemisphere lemons. “The current market situation for lemons is certainly different to previous seasons as prices on the UK wholesale market are higher than prices achieved for lemons in fixed retail programmes,” says André De Klerk, marketing manager for Afrifresh. Lemons and limes represent roughly 10 per cent of South Africa’s total citrus crop.
The season has started well for South African soft citrus and the fruit has proved to be good as a result of favourable weather conditions prior to harvest. The UK is the biggest market for the satsuma, the earliest variety of soft citrus. This harvest peaks in April. “Usually the peak arrivals from South Africa are a week or two later than the Argentinean peak volumes, but this year Argentinean shipments were delayed due to strikes and peak volumes of South African and Argentinean satsumas arrived in the UK simultaneously,” says Chadwick.
Growers in the Western Cape have finished harvesting satsumas, and the clementine harvest is well underway. “This year the fruit is on the small size as there is quite a big crop as far as volume is concerned and, thus far, the prices we are receiving are acceptable,” says George Hall, CGA director from Unipack Packhouse in Ashton, Western Cape. “Our harvest is proceeding well, although this year our timing is 10 days to two weeks later than usual. The Early Marisol clementine varieties have already been harvested and the clemenules harvest is now underway. Growers have also harvested the popular new Clemenpons variety that is originally from Spain, which is also en route to the markets.”
Soft citrus accounts for only 10 per cent of total South African citrus production and is marketed mostly in the UK and North America, as there is little demand for soft citrus in northern Europe. The North American market is proving to be an increasingly lucrative market for soft citrus producers from the Western Cape region.
The grapefruit harvest started at the end of April and represents approximately 15 per cent of the total citrus production figure. This year, producers are reporting that the fruit size seems somewhat larger than last year. Grapefruit is produced mainly in the warm northern parts of South Africa, and one of the main markets for pigmented grapefruit is Japan. “This year it is business as usual for the grapefruit harvest,” says De Klerk. “Volumes of the crop seem to be largely similar in size to last year and, as the north of the country was not as much affected by the cool spring weather, the harvest seems to be around 10 days earlier than usual.”
Oranges are by far the largest citrus type produced in South Africa, representing about 65 per cent of the total harvest. The first production starts with Navels in May and continues until October with Valencias. Production areas in the north of the country have received good rains in the period leading up to the harvest and conditions have been generally favourable for good crop development.
The crop forecast for Valencias is similar to last year, but as the harvest is still a few weeks away, it remains to be seen how these figures will look nearer the time. “The initial estimate for the South African Navel harvest was five per cent up against last year, but as the crop started at the end of April, this has been adjusted downwards and we are now predicting a harvest of exactly the same volume as last year,” says Pieter Nortje, chairman of the Navel Focus Group and CGA director.
“Over the last few years, the Navel season from the Eastern Cape production region has lengthened from eight weeks to 14 weeks and now runs from late April to August. This is due to an increasing trend towards the production of the late Navel group of varieties such as Cumbria, Autumn Gold, Powell and Lane Late. These varieties produce fruit of a better quality and arrive in the market when the bulk of the northern-hemisphere oranges have been sold,” explains Nortje. “During 2006, the South African citrus industry increased the export standards for Navels based on colour, acid and sugar levels in order to provide a superior product to the market, and these standards were increased again during 2007.”
Previously, producers aimed to provide Navels to the market as early as possible and the fruit was often harvested prior to optimal sugar, acid and colour development. “We have seen a 15 per cent decrease in the production of these older early varieties as the trend towards the later Navel group increases,” Nortje adds.
This increase in the minimum standards for export fruit was not limited to Navels. During 2006, the industry also revised a number of minimum standards for soft citrus in order to improve the standard of the fruit on offer in the market. “The improvement in our export standards forms an important part of our co-ordinated marketing effort to increase our marketing edge in a highly competitive marketing arena,” says Jock Danckwerts, chairman of the Soft Citrus Focus Group.
For the second season, the South African industry is reaping the benefits of a monitoring system for the varieties and markets voluntarily implemented during the 2006 harvest. The steady growth of citrus export volumes from South Africa and the related marketing challenges provided the impetus for growers to be more proactive in the management and marketing of their producers. “The feedback we have received from growers is that the variety focus groups, created and elected by growers, are very helpful to growers in making technical and marketing decisions,” says Chadwick. “These groups liaise with the Citrus Marketing Forum and the CGA’s information manager, and this flow of information has proved to be a very valuable tool for the industry.”
In relation to other South African fruit sectors, the citrus industry is by far the country’s biggest fruit production sector, exporting up to 70 million 15kg cartons of citrus annually. After Spain, South Africa ranks as the world’s second-biggest citrus exporter. Citrus is produced in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces and, with the various climates throughout the country, South Africa produces citrus for nine months of the year.
The major markets for South African citrus are Europe, the Middle and Far East, North America and Russia. The European Union is the market destination for roughly one quarter of this production.
FORUM PROVIDES CITRUS SECTOR WITH FOCAL POINT
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum (FPEF). This industry body was formed in the wake of the deregulation of the South African fruit sector to maintain a prosperous but disciplined fruit-export sector based on free-market principles within the deregulated environment.
The FPEF is a non-profit industry organisation and its membership is voluntary and open to all companies that export fresh fruit from South Africa.
FPEF works closely in co-operation with the fruit industry and co-funds the Citrus Marketing Forum (CMF) with the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA). The CMF is a platform for discussion between the exporters, growers and industry stakeholders. It monitors the situation in various international markets, observes market trends and provides industry information and feedback to the broader citrus industry.
“The Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum is invaluable to the citrus industry as they have a strict code of conduct. If we are notified of problems that have developed between growers and exporters, we refer this directly to FPEF,” says Justin Chadwick of the CGA. “We encourage our growers to make use of exporters that are accredited FPEF members as one of the requirements of membership is that exporters maintain a grower trust fund in order to protect the growers.”
Stuart Symington, ceo of the FPEF, adds: “As the growers have variety focus groups, so the FPEF has market focus groups that monitor and at times co-ordinate the marketing in various market sectors.”
In order to address the vital skills shortage in the South African fresh produce sector, FPEF has produced a set of training manuals that map the trade chain. These manuals are an important industry resource and form the learning material for the highly successful “Top of the Class” training course which FPEF offers to new entrants into the fruit industry throughout South Africa.
Deregulation has led to a polarisation of much of the country’s research and development capacity and many of the fruit kinds have established their own research and development facilities. In consultations between government and the fresh produce industry the need to improve the structure and co-ordination of the industry’s research and development has become apparent. FPEF has been proactively involved in this process and been instrumental in sourcing government funding from the Department of Science and Technology for the Post Harvest Innovation Programme.
This project has received funding for three years and involves the Agricultural Research Council, Department of Science and Technology and FPEF and is chaired by FPEF. Some of the areas earmarked for special focus are post-harvest activities and cold chain management beyond the farm gate, as well as packaging and phytosanitary compliance.
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