South Africa’s apple and pear growers are hoping that the 2016 season will turn out well for them despite major challenges. While they are gathering their best harvest volumes since 2013, some regions are in the grips of the worst drought these fruit-growing regions have seen for many years.
In some areas irrigation water is running out, and this may affect the later varieties. However, it is the long-term effect of the drought and hot weather that is worrying growers the most. It is clear that unless they get very good rains during this winter, they will face significantly worse prospects next year.
The 2016 export crop of apples and pears combined is expected to be just 500,000 cartons short of 50 million cartons, which is about a million more than last year. It is short of the 2013 record crop of 50.6m cartons and around 7m higher than the climate-affected crop of 2014.
Apples will reach 33.4m cartons, about half a million more than last year, while pears are expected to be close to 16m cartons.
The climatic challenges will be significant, because it will affect the size specification of this year’s crop. The areas most affected are Ceres and Tulbagh, where some growers warned they would run out of water by mid-March. On the other hand Langkloof, a region along the south-east coast which so often suffered because of adverse weather in the past, probably has the best prospects of all the regions following good rains.
While growing conditions are tough this year, South African growers are also keeping one eye on the European stock levels, because it has such a great influence on market conditions. This year they feel that despite the fact there will still be a sizeable overflow of European fruit into their season, the situation is manageable.
Melsetter Group’s Alastair Moodie says South Africa will face slightly lower carryover stocks in Europe and the UK compared with last year. “However, there is still enough to make this a challenging season,” he says.
Hortgro’s Jacques du Preez says the hot and dry weather in the Cape region during December and January has taken its toll. “It affected size and colour in the early season, but the situation has improved considerably with somewhat cooler weather lately.”
“Growers in the Eastern Free State have also suffered particularly because of the drought, but the Langkloof in the Southern and Eastern Cape expects an excellent crop because their climatic conditions have been much better so far this season,” he says.
Hortgro’s crop prediction shows a significant increase in Pink Lady, Fuji and Royal Gala this season. Pink Lady will grow by eight per cent compared with last year. Observers say this is the result of improved cultivars giving better colour coming into production. Fuji will be up four per cent and Royal Gala three per cent. It is also interesting to note that volumes of Cripps Pink will reach two million cartons this year, just about 400,000 less than Pink Lady.
Cripps Pink apple exports from South Africa are nothing other than the apples that do not make the Pink Lady colour standard. The apples come from the same tree and it shows that one can ‘skin the cat’ in more ways than one.
This is also true in the case of Joya, a new trademark under which apples previously known as Sundowner are exported – that is if growers decided to pay the royalties required to use the trademark. Apparently consumers did not quite ‘take’ to Sundowner and hence the reason for its disappearance from the South African cultivar list. At the same time Cripps Red has appeared and that is where it seems the majority of Sundowner will end up. The prediction is that more than a million cartons of Cripps Red will be exported this year, compared to 20,000 of Joya-branded apples.
In the pear category, both Packham’s Triumph and Forelle will be down this year. The two cultivars represent nearly 60 per cent of the South African pear crop.
Of more significance is the fact that the new blushed pear, Cheeky, will grow by 79 per cent this year, although still from a low base. The significance is that after some decades of trying the South African industry is at last making good progress in building its blushed pear range. Two other blushed pear varieties, namely Rosemarie and Flamingo, which are produced and marketed before Forelle, have not always performed and it is expected that the beautifully blushed South African-bred Cheeky will significantly enhance the blushed range.
There is also more good news for pear growers who want to participate in the lucrative pear range. An early season blushed pear, Celina, is expected to give growers a further option to grow blushed pears from early to late. Celina was developed in northern Europe and is licensed in South Africa to the cultivar developer, Stargrow.
“Celina is a summer pear type so it eats sweet off the tree already, which is great because it is an early variety that you do not have to store,” says Stargrow’s Andries van der Westhuizen.
In a fruit category where one does not find new cultivars easily and where the saying that one ‘plants pears for your heirs’ is very true, the progress with Cheeky and the promise of Celina will indeed be welcome for the South African industry.
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