Export chances for
vegetable crops
have been
drowned
EXTENSIVE RAIN damage to fruit crops in the northern growing areas has severely dented this season's export volumes, according to Hennie Olivier of the PPECB (Perishable Products Export Control Board).
Export chances for vegetable crops have been drowned, but it's the high-value avocado fruit crop that has taken the most
significant beating.
Figures revealed at PPECB's March board meeting indicated that the avo crop was likely to be 25% off the previous target of 16-million cartons.
This, said Olivier, was a combination of rain damage and the water in the orchards increasing disease, and hammering quality levels.
It's a bit early to numerically assess any export volume loss amongst citrus crops - with the picking season only just getting underway. As soon as people can get into the orchards to assess the damage, we'll probably see more, Olivier said.
But he is relatively optimistic that the national export output will not be too badly diminished.
Citrus is a crop that's widespread across the country, he told FTW. So the overall volumes will be less seriously affected.
But the problem is also on-going, according to Olivier.
Some areas in Mpuma-
langa and Northern Province normally record 500 millimetres of rainfall each year, he said. We've had reports of over 2 000mm having already being logged.
This has not only seen a major loss amongst vegetable crops this year, but has also threatened future crops. Said Olivier: Most of the farm dams in the northern areas have been lost or badly damaged. So they won't be able to irrigate later in the year.
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