South Africa's table grape packing has officially come to a close in the Orange River, Northern Province and Oliphant's River regions, while shipping volumes fell 10% in week 9.

According to data released by the South African Table Grape Industry (SATI), the country's cumulative shipping levels rose to 35,841,863 cartons in the week, but this was still lower than the 43,695,683 cartons recorded at the same time last year.

SATI's newsletter said 'very good' weather had allowed for 'very good quality' La Rochelle, Bonheur and Crimson grapes in the Berg River region, while good quality late season varieties including Dauphine grapes commenced their harvests in the Hex Valley region.

Grape exports to the U.K. fell 41.6% on the previous week, while there were also significant falls in exports to northern Europe and the Middle East, at rates of 31.77% and 91.7% respectively. While the falls can be partly explained by packing coming to a close in some regions, they were also significantly lower than export volumes in the same period last year.

There was however a sharp uptick in exports to South East Asia, almost doubling to 729,426 cartons in week 9, while exports to destinations in the 'Other Markets' category more than doubled to 260,104 cartons. These two market categories combined represented around 45% of South Africa's table grape exports during the week.

Photo: Flickr, Zest-pk

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com