Promising season for SA’s pome fruit producers

Pome fruit producers are set to bounce back in 2024 thanks to favourable market conditions and higher-thananticipated export volumes.

Roelf Pienaar, managing director of TruCape, said supply levels in general looked promising and that shipping challenges in some competing Southern Hemisphere countries, such as Chile, would create opportunities for South Africa to sell more fruit in some markets.

While unfavourable climatic conditions and hail damage resulted in apple exports declining by 4% and pear exports by 16% in 2023, Pienaar said the harvest this year looked promising. This was confirmed by Hortgro’s recently released estimate, according to which apple export volumes were expected to increase by 7% from

43 580 735 (12,5kg equivalent) cartons in 2023 to 46 420 996 cartons in 2024.

Bi-red apple exports, such as Gala, Cripps Red and Bigbucks, are expected to drive the bulk of the volume increase, with Gala apples exports anticipated to increase by 5%, Cripps Red by 11% and Bigbucks by 33%.

There is also a positive outlook on Pink Lady volumes, which are anticipated to increase by 8% following the trend of the past few seasons.

Pear exports are expected to increase by 1%, from 18 498 472 (12,5kg equivalent) cartons to 18 739 049 cartons. Cheeky, Celina and Rosemarie volumes are expected to increase slightly, whereas Packham’s Triumph volumes are expected to remain the same as last year. Abate Fetel volumes, however, are expected to decrease by 3% because of the harvest being earlier than usual and frost damage.

Hortgro chairperson Nicholas Dicey said ports remained the most direct challenge to the sustainability of producers. “The industry is in constant communication with the relevant stateowned enterprise to ensure dependable and punctual supply of our tasty produce,” he said.