Generic table grapes

Table grape growers in South Africa's Orange River region have lost up to 2.5m cartons of their 2013/14 crop due to a frost that recently hit the region.

The Orange River Growers' Association confirmed that up to 800ha of table grapes along the entire valley had been affected.

'Although the damage in these vineyards varies from area to area, we believe that the worst case scenario is that we will loose around 2.5m cartons,' said Piet du Plessis, chairman of the Orange River Producer Alliance.

At this very early stage of the new season it is impossible to accurately predict the damage, he suggested: 'We will do another assessment after the flower stage has been completed and it may well be that these early indications will be wrong. Time will tell.'

Coming so soon after the losses in Chile, sources in the South African industry predict that supply to the Northern Hemisphere markets could well be short again this season.

In 2012/13 early grape export volumes from South Africa were affected by rain and unseasonal weather, resulting in around 2m cartons from the Orange River region being lost.

'We were on our way to a record crop of around 19m cartons last season,' explained du Plessis. 'In the end we shipped just short of 17m cartons in what was really a big crop. In table grapes we also experience on and off years and it is therefore questionable whether last year's big crop will be repeated this year.'

This would indicate that at certain stages of the season, supplies could be short, resulting in a repeat of this year's experience.

Du Plessis noted that a cold spring had somewhat slowed the development process in the middle and later parts of the Orange River, but that some of the early production units in the early part of the valley could ripen normally, even being somewhat earlier than last year.

Elsewhere in the Cape regio,n the lingering winter weather is causing some concern for the early stonefruit harvest. It is currently flowering time in the apple and pear sector, but cold fronts, bringing heavy rain and snow, have kept the ideal spring weather away.

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