Two of the biggest southern hemisphere exporters are facing difficult times as both South African and Chilean senders cope with an assortment of power cuts, currency issues and the fall out from unseasonable weather.
A burgeoning economy in the Western Cape area of South Africa has seen demand for electricity spiral and where supplies fail to keep up, power cuts for hours at a time, often without warning, are causing serious problems for some producers and packers.
“People are losing power and are trying to buy generators,” said Martin Dunnett of Capespan who has recently returned from the region. “The problem is when they don’t get warning of a power cut and it can particularly be tough for those who are packing at source and for storage.
“It has not affected the flow of fruit at the moment, but there is genuine concern.”
A spokesman for the South African Table Grape Industry said while the disruption has had no major impact yet on production quality or supply, it has the potential to have a negative impact both on the industry and the economy of the Western Cape.
Grape availability is tight as frost and rain in the later production areas in South Africa mean that red fruit particularly is not plentiful.
“The demand for red seedless fruit is increasing year-on-year so that it now represents some 30-40 per cent of the market compared to 20 per cent three years ago,” said Dunnett. “This, coupled with a shortage of later variety Crimson from the early area of Orange River and a late start in the later area of the Hex Valley, has created a gap on the marketplace.”
In some cases, exporters have even air-freighted their produce to market to meet programmes.
And the Chilean export season has got off to a tricky start, according to producers’ association Fedefruta. Untimely rainfall at the end of December and a weakening of the dollar are making life difficult for the sector. Spring frosts affected fruit set in grapes slowing maturity and affecting the number of berries and their size.
The up-shot is a gap in the UK marketplace to co-incide with the dip in SA availability, which has meant a strong wholesale market and a tightness of supply that should last at least until next weekend.
“Quantities have been down -some suppliers have only shipped 50 per cent of their grape programme so far,” said Alan Guindi of importer Richard Hochfeld. “We have been shipping Chilean grapes for four to five weeks this season so far but we are still falling short and so are making alternative arrangements to meet programmes.”
February is often characterised by Chile and South Africa vying for position on grapes but with a 10-14 day delay to the Chilean season being felt and South Africa’s own problems, that is not the case this year.
“Things are tight and people’s stores are empty,” said Hochfeld’s Neil Denney. “We will probably start to see big arrivals again from March 4-6, but in the short term the market will be a bit lively.”
A weak dollar and a rand that has strengthened 10 per cent on sterling in a year are also compounding the situation.
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