A tumultuous Orange River Valley grape harvest has ended. Their last fruit will be loaded out this week and arrive in Europe and the UK in week 5 or 6, says Marthia Spangenberg, the CEO of Orex Export outside Kakamas in the Northern Cape. Orex grows both conventional and organic table grapes and organic citrus.
The vineyards are now getting their postharvest summer pruning, as growers reflect on a season that started off inauspiciously when excessive heat during flowering caused some blocks, particularly the late varieties, to abort the young fruit. On the mid-season varieties cell division was impeded, leading to smaller berries and lighter tonnages; only the early varieties came through more or less unscathed.
Then rain and hail in December further reduced volumes, so much so that on one of their two organic table grape farms they lost half the crop.
Low volumes helped fruit to move in crisis year
The run-up to Chinese New Year is usually an important time of the year for Orange River grape producers, and Orex supplies the Far East with mostly conventional grapes (limited amounts of organic grapes for Malaysia and Singapore).
“Where we can easily put 50% of our product into the special markets that are sensitive to berry size, this year we only got to around 10%,” she says.
Europe’s grape market was empty and it helped to a degree and prices did remain more stable. “The reduction in grape volumes helped the fruit to keep moving in a crisis year,” she remarks.
Unexportable grapes were sent for raisin-drying which, given the cost of packing and packaging, makes more sense than sending them to the domestic market.
Organic sector shrinks as a result of Russia’s war
Orex has grown organic grapes, which constitute 30% of their grapes, since 1997 and the rest are conventionally grown, but the very future of their organic business is under threat.
Right: organic Prime grapes grown by Orex Export for UK retail
They have been mulling over the extremely difficult prospect of switching from organic to conventional; a decision which would take years to reverse and which, naturally, doesn’t fill their organic buyers with joy.
Five or six years ago the organic sector showed much promise but since Russia invaded Ukraine and gas prices spiralled upwards and price inflation took hold in Europe, the organic market has shrunk significantly.
At the start of the season some European supermarkets told them they were expecting a contraction of 15% to 30% in demand for organic grapes. She observes that opportunistic consumers of organic grapes have almost completely fallen away, leaving only a dedicated core of consumers for whom organic fruit represents their outlook on life.
“You can clearly see that since last year when the Russian war started driving up gas prices the organic market has certainly shrunk. At the moment we’re struggling to keep head above water with organic fruit as a result of losses to our crop and the shrunken organic market and prices under pressure. We’ll give it time to see whether the situation changes but if it doesn’t, we’ll switch over depending on what happens over the next two years.”
Organic grape production requires a tremendous amount of labour
She continues: “It’s concerning for our organic buyers but they understand the concept that you have to survive during critical times. We’ve come so many years with our clients, they understand when certain drastic changes need to be made.”
Organic oranges with cold damage destroyed in EU
And then there was the controversial new orange regulation for the EU requiring colder shipping temperatures than ever before.
“We did export all of our organic citrus but the cold damage on the organic oranges was incredibly bad, it really hurt us and the fruit had to be discarded in Europe. We incurred a total loss during the organic citrus campaign. It was our second really difficult year.”
Electricity cuts and diesel generators furthermore place unbelievable pressure on their cash flow, to top off a small crop.
“This is a dramatic period for the entire fruit industry, it’s a watershed moment. Our heart remains in farming but we have to make plans to remain cost-effective."
For more information:
Marthia Spangenberg
Orex Export
Tel: +27 54 495 0087
Email: [email protected]
https://orexexport.com/