Gamtoos navels: no splitting and “fantastic” internal quality

The Satsuma harvest is running at full tilt in the Patensie area of the Eastern Cape but is expected to slow down after next week. Over the next five or six weeks, navels, Novas and clementines will follow, with lemons harvested throughout.

“We have been really very pleasantly surprised at the sizing on Satsumas, especially compared to last year,” says Snyman Kritzinger, managing director of Grown4U in Kirkwood, Eastern Cape. “Last year around 80% of the fruit was calibre 3 and smaller, this year 80% or more is calibre 3 and larger. We’re not exactly sure why – it’s been a drier year than last year, and yet our Satsumas are about twice as big.”

They’re equally pleased to note that there’s almost none of the splitting of last year evident on navels, probably because during the period of navel flowering and fruit set they didn’t experience the excessive heat and low relative humidity of the season before. Navels have started colouring, harvesting should start by weeks 19 and 20.

“I tasted some of the navels yesterday and the internal quality is already fantastic. We expect a good medium size on the navels, with some large fruit also present. Early navels are expected to be slightly smaller than the mid- and late-season navels.”

Novas could be smaller than last year, he says, but it’s a very handsome harvest.

Despite the drought in the Gamtoos Valley (the Kouga Dam is 10.6% full), climatologically it appears to have been a more favourable season for fruit development. There has been some rain in the area during the past week. The Sundays River Valley, to the east of the Gamtoos, depends on the Gariep Dam, which is brimful, more than 100% capacity.

From a marketing point of view, Russia features strongly for Grown4U at this stage of the season, because of the size of Satsumas. “We’re sending more Satsumas to Russia than last year, approximately equal volumes to last year to the EU, but volumes for the UK, which takes smaller counts, will be down,” Snyman says. “The EU doesn’t take counts 4 and 5, or even 3, but Russia will take it, although they prefer larger counts.” The first volumes will arrive next week.

Citrus producers are very concerned at the state of the UK Satsuma market at the moment. “It’s ironic,” he notes. “The UK used to be the most stable market for Satsumas but for the past two years it hasn’t been a competitive market. There is a lot of competition amongst the discounters.” 

For more information:

Snyman Kritzinger

Tel: +27 42 230 0760

Email: [email protected]