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Witzenberg Properties, Ceres

Great cherry harvest for Tru-Cape grower

Recently, Witzenberg Properties in Ceres was able to deliver 132 tons of cherries, of which South Africa’s Food Lover’s Market took the bulk, through a Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing brokered deal.

Nico Verhoef, Financial Director at Witzenberg Properties, stated that at one time, based on the lateness of the summer, they downgraded their initial cherry crop forecast from 130 to 82 tons. “We were thrilled with the final outcome and excellent class 1 pack-out of 81%,” he says. Rather than export their crop, Witzenberg Properties made the decision to keep their cherries on South African soil and with good results.

Cherries are expensive to plant, and are considered a high-value crop because of the short window of availability and exclusivity. Currently, all South African cherries are picked by hand so it is a labour-intensive few weeks. Much of Witzenberg Properties’ farms also have apples and pears, all packed at Ceres Fruit Growers and marketed through Tru-Cape.

The automated sorting and packing facility at Esperanto is an Italian-build which can manage about 600 tons of cherries using high-speed cameras to inspect each piece of fruit. “From full bloom until the day of the harvest there are 60 days to make it or break it, so you need perfect weather conditions in order to be successful,” says Tru-Cape’s procurement manager and grower Calla du Toit. “

Source: farmersreviewafrica.com


Photo source: Dreamstime.com

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