by Nichola Watson, Fresh Plaza
There has been a lot in the news about how the drought is severely affecting the fruit production in South Africa and while the situation is very serious in most fruit producing regions it is not the case for Sundays River citrus grower Hannes De Waal from SRCC.
“We will start shipping lemons to Europe in week 20 and oranges from week 18. It looks like it will be an early season for us, in this specific area we are not really affected by the drought, Sundays River Valley is looking at a season similar to last year. We have a good crop set and are happy with the fruit, the day temperatures are a bit high which may cause a bit of sunburn which may bring the estimates down, but at the moment we don’t think that will happen,” says Hannes.
It is always very hot in citrus growing regions so he is not too worried at the moment they also have plenty of water for irrigation.
“Navel oranges are always very big from this area and lemons are always on spec for the EU retailers. We have seen a change in the preference for oranges in the last couple of years in the bagging categories, there is more demand from the EU for medium to smaller sizes, so we are paying attention to that, it is probably economic circumstances which brought that along. A lot of our bigger fruit now tends to go to Eastern markets where as the demand from EU retailers for smaller sizes has increased dramatically but we have enough to go round. I must be honest we do like the circumstances which we are seeing on the EU market at the moment.”
Hannes was also very pleased after his visit to Fruit Logisitca, he said it was very positive and they are definitely going to a stable EU market this season. He has had more Europeans visiting or planning visits to SRCC and its Producers this year than ever before. Spanish volumes were also down this year, which according to some Spanish producers was good as the demand was not there.
Lemons are hot commodity everywhere just now, and South Africans are planting more lemons to cater to the demand, “Our region is arguably the best in the world for growing lemons, the yields are very good and this is the first thing growers have to think about,” said Hannes.
“People are planting a lot and we will need to do more consumer and health benefit promotions as lemons hold health benefits for consumers . Europe is strong but the Middle East has been the main growth area for us in recent years. China has been a revelation for us as well as the Americans and I see the Spanish are also looking in that direction,” explains Hannes.
At the moment it is very positive, but judging when the growth will surpass the market potential is very difficult to do. We are talking to big lemon growers throughout the world because nobody wants to over do the planting and collapse the market.”
Sundays River Citrus Company are expanding the capacity of their juice factory by 50% this year and will double it again in the next five to increase the processing side of the business.
On the subject of CBS Hannes said, “There was life before CBS and there is life after it. We deal with it and we are quite happy about the progress which has been made over the last couple of years. We have really been successful in containing the disease and in some cases eradicating it, but it is a tropical area and in all tropical areas you find CBS, but we still maintain that it is more of a trade barrier than anything else but we are trying to please the South African authorities and the Europeans. It has become a part of life and Europe is not the only market, CBS has forced us to look at these other markets and that has been very positive for us,” concludes Hannes.
Source: Fresh Plaza