South African apples and pears are meeting a buoyant market in the UK. Williams pears began arriving three weeks ago. "They have met a very good reception with Rocha production from Portugal well down and Conference availability tying up," said Martin Dunnett, procurement director at Capespan UK, the largest handler of South African top fruit in the UK.
Fruit availability has improved on last season on pears with Packham recovering from a low volume year in 2003. First arrivals of Rosemarie came into the UK last week and Dunnett reports that 2004 promises to be a good volume year. "Although sizes are under pressure on Rosemarie and there is quite a bit of smaller fruit," he reported.
The season on the whole is starting 10-14 days later than usual for top fruit. The first Royal Gala has been received from early producing areas, but the Gala crop from South Africa will "not be huge" this year, said Dunnett. "They have had some strange climatic conditions with summer south-easterly winds over Christmas through the Cape causing fruit to drop and really affecting Royal Gala at a critical time in its development."
The picture is different for Granny Smith and Golden Delicious which have not been so affected by the winds as they are later developing varieties. "We are expecting a big crop of both varieties with plenty of availability in the sizes preferred by the UK market," said Dunnett. "We are anticipating a good response from the market, but it remains to be seen how long France will be on the marketplace."
South African top fruit is also showing indications of very good quality. "Because of the later start to the season, we have some very good sugar levels are good cell development as fruit has been longer on the tree," said Dunnett.
Capespan will be handling about 70 per cent of South African’s total Pink Lady volumes is planning for a slight increase in volume over last year. The marketing window for the South African Pink Lady crop is likely to be after July to complement supplies from other southern hemisphere sources and ensure the market is not stressed.
