Weak rand buoys citrus industry

Contradicting fears at the beginning of the season, the citrus export industry fared better than expected in the 2011/12 season, according to Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA). “At the beginning of the year there were concerns about how the season would unfold,” he told FTW. “These concerns were that it would be a poor year, but everyone has indicated that it was, instead, a fair-to-good year.” Broken down into the various citrus commodities, there were varying fortunes. Grapefruit, for example, had a relatively flat year, according to CGA records. The crop was mainly small grapefruit, and more suitable for processing than as fresh fruit. However, lemons had a good year, as low volumes coming out of Argentina – a major competitor in the southern hemisphere – boosted SA’s exports considerably. “There were again pre-season worries about size and low volumes,” Chadwick added, “but we actually had a good crop and markets held up. This was aided by sensible market monitoring of things like prices and trends, and it turned out to be a good year in the end.” There is a wide variety of soft citrus grown and exported, and a lot of varieties in the market for these fruits, so it’s a competitive field. Amongst these, the satsuma was a struggler early on in the season. For clementines and mandarins, however, the market was fine, and the volumes fair. Navel oranges, on the other hand, faced problems. “Volumes were fairly high, Chadwick noted, “and this was especially a problem when they overlapped with the remainder of the northern hemisphere season. “A big positive factor, however, was the rand exchange rate being weak. In competing countries, like Argentine and Australia, their currencies strengthened against the US dollar, and that gave the weak rand added advantage for exports.” Pushed for a forecast for the forthcoming season, Chadwick said he wouldn’t hazard a guess this much before the start of the season – which runs from February through to September.