Grape growers in South Africa's Orange River region are not having things all their way this season, as unfavourable weather has disrupted what was already expected to be a smaller crop and the total forecast is expected to drop during the next weeks.
In Europe, the cold snap and rain is having an impact on distribution and sales and there are reports of demand having dropped due to the bad weather. What normally is a peak sales week, the week before Christmas, may disappoint.
An earlier season has resulted in many more grapes being shipped for sales in the pre-Christmas period, but this advantage may now have been lost.
The Orange River crop was previously predicted at more than 14m cartons. Growers indicate that the drop in harvest is not restricted to only the early varieties and that the total crop from this region could be down by as much as 20 per cent.
'The grapes are just not there,' says Anton Viljoen, a leading grape grower who has two farms in the Orange River. 'We can cope with the weather but have to accept the reality of a smaller crop.'
While there is now some build up of stock in Europe due to the bad weather, the Orange River season may come to an early end and there may be short supplies once things get back to normal. 'Demand is slow,' says Jonathan Olins of Poupart Imports, 'but we all know that we will need good South African supplies from January onwards.'
Meanwhile, the harvest in the later regions is on track with excellent warm weather which is boosting grape ripening. The Berg and Hex River regions will start packing within the next week, and the prospects are good.
The Namibian season has come to an end, about a week earlier than usual, and after the intensive eight-week period of packing, the whole community of Aussenkehr has just about gone 'home' for Christmas. Around 3.4m cartons have been shipped this season from what is generally called the 'place where it never rains'.
Elsewhere, South Africa has shipped 9 per cent more stonefruit when compared with last year, with nectarines in an upward trend and shipments to date 12 per cent higher, while plums are 11 per cent higher.
Hortgro has warned the industry that higher volumes of plums and nectarines than expected could be shipped this year, although peach estimates will be down and to date 3 per cent less apricots have been passed for export.
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