Strong winds in Cape Town has played havoc with the shipment of South Africa table grapes and stonefruit.
Shipments of South African fruit have returned to normal in Cape Town’s container port after strong winds severely disrupted activities last week. After a season in which rain also impacted on the production in the early grape regions, shipments are presently well behind last year’s.
The wind delayed container shipments from Cape Town. One of the vessels delayed was the MOL Caledon, which was originally due to sail on 31 January but which eventually only left four days later.
By the end of week four 22.6 million cartons of table grapes had been shipped compared to 28.8m cartons at the same time last season. Shipments to the UK and northern Europe were well behind last year’s shipments, but shipments to the Far East and Middle East increased significantly compared to last year.
This is in line with forecasts that South African growers and exporters are placing much more emphasis to developing markets in the Far East and Middle East than in the past.
SATI’s executive director Elaine Alexander said: “We are delighted that predictions of growth outside the UK and Europe are manifesting itself.”
In both South Africa’s northern regions and the Orange River packing has come to an end, with both falling well short of pre-season estimates. The Northern regions shipped 600,000 cartons less than last year, while the Orange River packed three million cartons less.
Meanwhile the South African stonefruit crop is expected to increase by some three per cent compared with last season, with plums growing by nine per cent, while the other categories are all down on last season.
Apricots dropped back further after breaking through one million cartons two years ago, while Nectarine shipments are expected to be two per cent down on last season because of a drop in production of the mid- and late season varieties. Peaches did not have a good production year, dropping by 17 per cent from last year’s 1.1m cartons to below the 2009 export figure.
