Southern Africa may harvest its biggest ever citrus crop this year, with South Africa’s Citrus Marketing Forum noting in its final estimate for 2013 that this year’s volumes are expected to increase by 4 per cent on last year’s record to nearly 107m cartons.
The final figures for 2012 now include volumes from Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, making this a southern African estimate, despite the dominance of South Africa.
Indeed, South Africa alone will produce more than 100m export cartons of citrus in 2013. If the season pans out as expected, the country will have recorded citrus export growth of around 36 per cent since 2006.
The biggest increase for southern Africa this year is in the grapefruit segment, which will rise by 15 per cent following low volumes in 2012.
Valencia and navel volumes across the region should remain relatively stable, with just a 1 per cent increase in volumes, while lemons will climb by 6 per cent and soft citrus by 7 per cent.
Individually, South Africa’s biggest category is Valencias, but the sector shows only modest growth of 0.4 per cent increase over 2012. Zimbabwe’s Valencias will increase by 12 per cent, Swaziland Valencia estimates shows a decrease of 8 per cent, and Mozambique anticipates similar volumes to the previous year.
While Zimbabwean grapefruit exports should remain static, volumes from Mozambique are set to increase by 23 per cent, South Africa by 15 per cent and Swaziland by 14 per cent.
The southern African estimate was made by various category focus groups and then studied by growers before the final estimate was issued.
The Grapefruit Focus Group explained that sizing should be much better than in 2012, with good quality and good colour.
For lemons, the largest growing region is the eastern Cape, which will have an increase in earlier lemons of 10 per cent when compared with a low first pick in 2012. An 8 per cent increase is anticipated in the mid-season sector, with a 6 per cent increase in late lemons.
Navel growers also expect larger-sized fruit, with a shift from earlier to later fruit. There have been isolated incidences of hail in the Western Cape and Nelspruit, while the Vaalharts region shows signs of recovery from last year’s hail.
For soft citrus, late mandarins are anticipating the highest year-on-year growth at 10 per cent, as young orchards start to mature.
Satsumas will increase by 8 per cent, while Clementines are estimated to increase by 3 per cent. For Valencias, the northern areas show slight decreases, while southern regions expect growth.
