Grape shipments from South Africa this season are running slightly behind last year in volume terms, and the market is still tight.
According to figures from the South African Table Grape Industry (SATI), the catch-up is now underway. “In the northern table grape region, the season is progressing as planned with black seeded, red seedless and white seedless making up the bulk of the current volumes being packed,” SATI said in a statement. “Quality of grapes being harvested is good.”
And in the Orange River area, all farms were packing at full capacity by the second week in December. “Although the region is five to seven days later than normal, it is expected that from the first week in January, the remaining varieties will be harvested at their normal dates,” said SATI. “Quality on red seedless is very good, with decent colour and berry size. White seedless also has very good berry size and eating quality is fine.”
Martin Dunnett at Capespan reports a very finely balanced situation, particularly on red grape. “The situation is very tight; everyone is ringing us looking for red grape,” he said. “Peru has been covering orders until last week and it has filled the gap, but the arrival of the vessel Ivory Dawn on Monday delivered significant red and white fruit - about 3,500 pallets - into the market, topping it up nicely, especially as there is some keen promotional activity going on.”
Dunnett reported that in some growing regions the harvest has even been running up to two weeks late, and in Mpumalanga it has been raining again recently. “There has been some mixed weather and some low sugars, but we have just about got there and I think there will be volume, and we are sure of good shelf space for what the retailers call the New Year recovery market.”
Meanwhile, the National Agricultural Marketing Council in South Africa has released figures showing that packaging costs in the country have spiralled.
The cost of packaging as a percentage of input costs is highest for apples, at 50 per cent compared to 44.1 per cent for pears, 41.7 per cent for peaches and nectarines, 31.2 per cent for plums and 33.2 per cent for grapes.
