South Africa’s latest stonefruit campaign has been a positive one in terms of volume, with the plum production growing by around 11% according to Jako van Lill, Commercial Manager for Stone and Pome Fruit at Fruits Unlimited, "however, some early and mid-season varieties arrived two to three weeks earlier than normal, causing a mid-season bottleneck. We also started quite early with the nectarines for export, around week 41/42 in the north.”
In terms of fruit size, Jako said that in general, they have been smaller for all stonefruit commodities, creating some problems in the market. “I also heard a small percentage of plums with internal quality issues in the market , hampering sales and possibly driving prices down, something which apparently has also affected Chile. As for apricots, there were also many small sizes early in the season, and the season finished in week 2.”
Price wise, he believes that South Africa won’t have the same returns as last year, when it took advantage of Chile’s poor situation, and this will affect all stonefruit products.
“Some prices for good quality fruit this year have stood between 1 and 1.50 Euro below those of last season in some markets. We have to remember South Africa also had a difficult grape campaign, especially in January, which put the whole market under pressure, affecting stonefruit sales.”
Jako stresses that one of Fruits Unlimited’s big goals is the opening of the Chinese market. “As a company, we believe we have the varieties they would want, and I think its opening, which already happened for South African apples, is a step in the right direction, since the UK and Europe can only take so much. We aim to find customers that can add value to our products.”
