The South African Table Grape Industry (SATI) has announced that the country's grape exports dropped significantly in 2011, with the final export volume being 13 per cent below last year's level.
While growers packed close to 50 million cartons, only 44.7m was exported, the body reported.
This represented the lowest table grape export crop for years, and growers across the country are said to be struggling because of this very difficult year.
"Flooding in the Orange River and the Northern Province, vessels delayed due to strong winds, the strong rand, fuel price increases, electricity increasing by another 25.8 per cent - these are just some of the challenges the industry faced during 2010/2011 table grape season," said SATI in its final report on the export season. "Exports fell by 13 per cent compared to the 2009-10 season, while the number of cartons packed by growers was down by seven per cent compared to last year."
Only the Berg River region managed to register positive growth, of 3 per cent, while the Orange River and Northern Province registered double digit drops of 17 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.
SATI, meanwhile, said that while exports to most regions of the world declined this year, shipments to South East Asia were 26 per cent up when compared with the previous year. Exports to the UK dropped by nearly 3m cartons and northern Europe by 4m cartons compared with last year.
SATI noted that the shortages in fruit exported to northern Europe and the UK from the Southern Hemisphere countries between week one and week 10 resulted in wholesale market prices being consistently higher than last season, lasting until Chile entered the market with significant volumes around week 11.
