South Africa’s table grape industry has recorded falls on 2010 shipping figures for the second consecutive week this year.

The South African Table Grape Industry (SATI) has recorded cumulative shipping of 17.13 million cartons for week 2 of 2011, compared to 21.5 million in the previous season.

The majority of the fall came from reduced exports to Northern Europe and the U.K., but shipments to Southeast Asia – which by SATI’s definition includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - were up 50% on last season, albeit from a small base.

Exports to the Middle East were down from 786,880 cartons to 728,277  cartons.

The report stated that harvesting of Thompson seedless was almost completed in the Oliphant’s River and Orange River regions, while all packing activities should likely finish in the Northern Province region by week 6.

In the Hex Valley Region it is expected that Red Globe grapes will be ready for harvest by the end of week 4 while Sunred Seedless and Crimson Seedless grapes will be ready for harvest from week 5.

In the Berg River Region a wide variety of grapes including Alphonse Lavallée, Regal Seedless, Sunred Seedless and Thompson Seedless are recording lower volumes than normal, due to extra work required removing small berries from bunches.

The report stated the quality of grapes across the regions was good.

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com