HORTGRO said yesterday that it held a cautiously optimistic outlook for the 2021/22 South African stone fruit season. This was after an unexpected hike in stone fruit production, particularly plums, during the previous season.
This as normality has returned after the drought years that distorted reference points and preceded the big increase of the 2020/21 season.
The organisation said while it was still early days many cultivars were in bloom now in mid-October, but at this stage the industry was expecting fruit packed for the export market to range between 15 million and 16.5 million cartons (5.25kg equivalents).
This was related to the same crop as last year with an 8 percent increase on the upper end, depending on how the season played out, it said. Stone fruit growers experienced a good winter and a very mild to cool spring.
For nectarine exports, an increase of 9 percent to 7.1 million cartons (2.5kg equivalents) was expected, while peach volumes were expected to be the same as in 2020/21 at 2.45 million cartons (2.5kg equivalents).
After the bounce-back of the previous season, apricot volumes were also expected to be the same or slightly down on the 2020/21 season.
Hortgro said logistics would remain a challenge, as was the case worldwide.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE