"Even though it's been a slow start we're positive about the season," asserts Lohan Marais from Icon Fruit which procures its peaches and nectarines from farms in the Klein-Karoo where the bitter cold around the end of August hurt some of the flowering ultra-early varieties.
"To give you an idea: normally we'd be flying out proper amounts of peaches and nectarines by now and today we're flying out just a single pallet," he says.
Clients in the United Kingdom are impatient: there's nowhere else for them to obtain peaches and nectarines at the moment. A black frost similarly took out much of the early peaches and nectarines grown in Limpopo Province.
Marais reckons that the availability will improve within two to three weeks as later varieties ripen.
"It's looking pretty good for the later early fruit and for the midseason fruit. It's really still early days. By mid-October we'll know more about the apricots and plums of the season, but at this stage apricots and plums look to be well on track as well."
Plum exports usually commence within five to six weeks.
For more information:
Lohan Marais
Icon Fruit
Tel: +27 21 860 1800
Email: [email protected]
www.iconfruit.co.za