South Africa’s early stonefruit gains momentum

Few people will make firm predictions of South African stonefruit volumes as early as the end of September, but there are encouraging signs for a crop that should exceed last year’s export harvest total. There are some 851 stonefruit growers registered with industry body Hortgro in South Africa and annual exports have a value of R3.85bn. In total, 82 per cent of the crop is exported as fresh fruit, making the industry very reliant on the export sector. Industry leaders have said there are positive signs for a crop which will exceed last years export harvest. After an initially warmer winter, very cold weather was recorded in July, which is normally an indication of a good harvest to come. Exporters, however, warned that cold weather in the late winter and early Spring, may have affected the early season crop. The plum and nectarine categories are expected to return to pre-2024 volumes – mainly due to new orchards having reached production maturity. Since 2019 plum plantings have ...