Sunday and Monday clocked the hottest temperatures recorded for this period in years across South Africa's Mpumalanga Province and southern Mozambique.
"We measured 42°C in Kiepersol, which is really unusual for this time of the year, and we've had tremendous sunburn on our young fruit," an avocado farmer says. "It's an awful lot of work to pick the damaged fruit. Because the fruit was young the fruit's internal quality is damaged to a degree from which it can't recover."
Hail and sunburn damage in Kiepersol orchards estimated to affect 20% to 40% of young fruit
He reckons they lost 20% of the crop, and concentrated on the western side of trees. Fruit can be sprayed with a sunscreen to reflect sunlight from the fruit, but it's not a guarantee and rain washes it off.
Patrick Caetano of Koeltehof Packers in Kiepersol agrees that sunburn will be more prominent on the coming crop, becoming more prominent by January and February, and that the amount of exportable fruit will be lower.
"The hail storm did about 40% damage to our crop. First we got quite a good smack from the hail and then the sun came out, burning the fruit. It's very strange weather, changing from hot and dry to cool and rainy today."
The avocados hit by hail have been sprayed with copper to protect the hail marks against fungal infection, repeated in follow-up sprays. Koeltehof starts packing avocados by the middle of March.
"It's going to be tough in the packhouses to sort all that fruit during the coming season," he reflects. "Just to get a perspective on the hail storm: it streaked through our area but some farmers had only light hail and rain, so they were fortunate."
The South African Weather Service has noted that the possibility of heatwaves remain likely for the remainder of summer.
For more information:
Patrick Caetano
Koeltehof Packers
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