Exports of South African grapes have slowed in week 50 to some 600,000 cartons for the whole of the week, a drastic drop compared to the exports of over 1.8 million and more in previous weeks, the South African Table Grape Industry (SATI) said in a statement.

The lull in exports comes despite a continued pace in intakes –the amount of cartons cleared at packing facilities for export- which reached some 1.5 million cartons in week 50.

For the season a total of 8.7 million cartons have been exported, the majority to Northern Europe and the UK.  At the same time last year 5.4 million cartons of grapes had been exported.

This year’s total is significantly higher since the harvest started approximately two weeks ahead of schedule.

The SATI statement did not speculate on what could be causing the lull in exports, but according to fruit consultancy iQonsulting sales in Europe, the grapes main export market, has been subdued as a result of cold weather in recent weeks.

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com