The Loskop Valley in Limpopo Province kicks off its grape season in fine fettle. Last week a hail shower hit one farm, but the effect will be limited. In general, the European grape market is in an excellent hungry place for the start of the 2024/2025 grape season.
The Northern Cape's Orange River Valley, largest of South Africa's grape production areas in 2023/2024 when it exported 24.292 million 4.5kg cartons of grapes, will pick its first in two weeks' time. By week 47 most farms will be picking, says Alwyn Dippenaar of Dippenaar Choice, a table grape farming operation along the Orange River.
"The grapes are looking very good at this stage and the market ought to be very strong because of lower availability," Dippenaar says. Another grape trader concurs: she has received countless enquiries into South African grapes over the past week.
A heatwave over the Orange River Valley during the second week of October – multiple days over 40°C, hot even by their semi-desert standards – caused flower abscission in blocks that were in full bloom, and consequently there are blocks without a 100% fruit set.
"But that's not more than a 10% reduction, we don't think," he says. The first grape estimate of the season had set the area's crop slightly above last year's at 24.4 million cartons, but there's still a long road ahead, he remarks. "Our harvest runs until the end of January but at this early stage we're happy with what we're seeing."