South Africa: The drought has intensified

The current South African Stone Fruit harvest is well underway and good weather during the ripening process has yielded a healthy crop. The drought conditions that have plagued the Western Cape for the past three years have largely been relieved in most of this province, where most of South Africa’s export stone fruit is produced. However, the drought has intensified in production regions further north in the country.

Growers in these regions have continued to adapt by introducing various drought management strategies to cope with these extreme conditions to complete their harvests. International demand for South African stone fruit has remained strong and productions continue to increase in response to this demand. While the industry continues to seek new international markets, the major markets for South Africa's plums, peaches and nectarines are the European Union, the United Kingdom and markets in the Middle East. In the EU there has been significant good growth in Germany during recent years. “Germany remains our strongest trading partner in Northern Europe. During the past six years our industry has proactively worked with German receivers and the retail sector to improve both the quality of our product on offer and the knowledge about our stone fruit,” explained André Smit, Chairman of the South African Stone fruit Producers’ Organisation (SASPA). “Our exports to Germany have been increasing as a result and this has been achieved through the ongoing combined marketing and promotional efforts of Hortgro, the South African grower body representing South African stone fruit producers and South African companies exporting stone fruit to Northern Europe,” he added. Louise Brodie

Read the complete article in one of the upcoming issues of the Fruchthandel Magazin.