POME FRUIT: Challenging but successful harvest

South Africa’s pome fruit season kept the industry on its toes due to various challenges arising from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, according to the South African apple and pear exporter, Tru-Cape.

Roelf Pienaar, Tru-Cape’s managing director, told Farmer’s Weekly that overall, the company had seen an increase in apple exports of about 2% year-to-date. Pienaar said it was more or less in line with South African production levels.

“Comparing this season to last, apples were particularly well-coloured, and tonnage as well as size were up.” From a quality perspective,

Pienaar said some challenges had been experienced with summer pear arrivals, which resulted in a drop of 9% in pear exports.

“Despite the obvious COVID-19 challenges, the Western Cape has concluded a successful harvest and we are cautiously optimistic.”

He pointed out that COVID-19 resulted in several logistical challenges, such as delays at ports, container shortages, and vessels omitting the Cape Town harbour from their schedules.

“We also had to make adjustments in the packing facilities due to social distancing requirements, which had affected overall productivity during the busiest period in the packhouses.”

He added that some of the company’s main trading markets also closed down during this period, which was a major challenge in terms of exporting certain varieties.

Pienaar said he was grateful that no power interruptions had been experienced during the peak picking season, as this would have affected the time fruit needed to chill sufficiently, as significant power was needed in the cooling process. This could have affected fruit quality, and ultimately the price consumers were willing to pay. – Jeandré van der Walt