Fruit growers in South Africa’s Western and Eastern Cape regions are slowly emerging from the disruption of the past two months, the result of unprecedented rain and floods.
Growers have said that packing and export operations were affected as they were unable to harvest late apple crops or access certain citrus orchards.
This was mainly due to the impact on infrastructure as well as damaged roads, highways and power supply lines.
They confirmed that it will take many months to emerge from the setback, but that export operations are once again running smoothly.
Added to this, exporters to Middle East countries are still having to cope with additional costs generated by war, while inputs have risen sharply due to rising fuel prices.
Senior grower Gys du Toit of Dutoit Group confirmed that power supply to the Ceres area has largely been restored.
“For a month we had to rely on diesel powered generators at enormous cost to growers and packers,” he noted.
Further to the East in the Langkloof Valley, growers could not harvest a part of their Pink Lady and Yoya crops.
The main road connecting the Langkloof to the export ports of Gqeberha and Ngquru was washed away, and growers themselves had to build a temporary bypass road to avoid a round trip to the port via George, which added 600kms to the journey.
Johan Kotze, chairman of the Langkloof Growers’ Association, said the rail agency Sanral has so far offered limited support to repair damage to the main route to the ports.
It is reported that at the time of the floods, around 40 per cent of the Langkloof’s apple and pear crops had been packed and were ready for shipment.
Kotze estimated that growers would lose around R28mn because of this.
in the Eastern Cape’s Gamtoos Valley, the start of the citrus harvest was delayed by more than a month.
“We were unable to get the fruit to the packhouses and the ports,” said SG Ferreira, chairman of the Patensie Fruit Growers Association.
“It will take a long time to repair infrastructure but we are now again fully engaged with our harvesting and export activities.”
Ferreira estimated that the harvest in the Gamtoos region could drop between 15 and 20 per cent.
“This is a huge loss for us,” Ferreira confirmed.
All efforts are now being made to catch up with seasonal activities, and growers said they are happy that their normal market supply programmes are up and running again.
Fruitnet
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