Mini tornado rips mangoes from trees in Limpopo, South Africa

“It's not an easy year for South African mangoes,” notes a buyer after what is being called a 'mini-tornado' that ripped through the Blyde River Valley, Mpumalanga/Limpopo border, on Friday evening, blowing scores of mangoes off the trees. The South African Weather Service could not confirm whether it was indeed a tornado. Many mango producers in Hoedspruit suffered heavy losses due to exceptionally strong winds that lifted plastic crates, leaving them 300m away and damaging infrastructure. Hail was accompanied by wind in some places; the sector calculates the damage to mango cultivation. “We have lost 15% that were damaged by hail and are not marketable due to sun damage when fruit was on the ground,” says Helgard Redelinghuys of Rederburg Estates, a mango and citrus producer in Hoedspruit, Limpopo province. "In addition, another 30% of our total harvest has been damaged by hail and will now have to be sold at a lower yield. So we are left with 55% of our fruit that is undamaged. ...