Speculation that the South African table grape industry is on course to harvest an unusually large export crop this season is inaccurate, according to one exporter.
While total exports have been projected at around 50 million cartons - a number reached only once before in the country’s history - this is in line with the normal yearly projections, says Hanno Scholtz, marketer for South African table grape exporter, The Grape Company: “It’s not an over supply, I would say it’s about normal. The South African industry for the past five years has been doing from 45-50m [cartons] a year so it is nothing out of the ordinary in my eyes. It’s always a projection and it is never going to be 100 per cent accurate, but it is a very normal projection and growers sometimes overstate their position,” he said.
He also rejected the assumption made in media reports elsewhere, that the industry would have trouble marketing the volume and said that some varieties were falling short of expectations due factors outside the industry’s control: “There is pressure on varieties like Thompson Seedless because it’s not yielding enough… that’s been affected by climate, where as varieties like Prime will grow in volume. Looking at the total volume I do not expect there to be any problem,” he said.”
