As the top fruit season starts in the Langkloof, producers are optimistic after a good winter with snow, significant rain during springtime and a return to a 60% water restriction.
Their morale was lifted when government acquiesced to their urgent request to ease an 80% water restriction to 60%. FreshPlaza reported last year on the unpopular decision to decrease their water allocation to 20% just as good rains filled the Langkloof’s farm dams, because of a regulation that restrictions may only be lifted when combined dam levels in the Eastern Cape stand at 65% (it’s currently at 55%).
The Langkloof is one of the catchment areas for the downstream Kouga Dam, providing irrigation water to the citrus farmers of Hankey and Patensie (the Gamtoos Valley).
Good rain has filled up the Langkloof’s farm dams, used for the area’s apples, pears, stone fruit and blueberries. The pear harvest started about three weeks ago with early Bon Chretiens and Rosemaries (both early varieties destined primarily for the local market) and the first apples, mostly Panorama Goldens, are now picked. Growers say apples and pears are looking good and they note with relief that there has been no hail so far.
“We find ways to manage with 40% of our usual water quota and we expect a better harvest than in 2018,” says Marius van der Westhuizen, who has started harvesting Bon Chretien (Bartlett or Williams) and Packham pears on his farm in the Langkloof. “We concentrate on high value crops but still, we’ll probably only reach around 70% of our normal harvest. We’re in survival mode. The industry, not only here but in the Western Cape as well, will take about two years to recover from the drought.”
Langkloof growers are hopeful they might, if they get another good rainy season, return to their full water quota next year. They’ve last had their full water allocation during the 2016/17 season. There had never before been water restrictions in the Langkloof.