SATI STATISTICS OF TABLE GRAPES IN SOUTH AFRICA 2021

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The 2020/21 table grape harvest ended on a new volume high with 74,9 million cartons (4.5 kg equivalent) inspected and passed for export (intakes). The new volume high represents a 11% increase on the previous highest intake of 67.6 million cartons in 2016/17, and a 13% increase on intake volumes year on year. Four crop estimates were issued during the season.

NATI ONAL I NFORMATI ON

The necessity for four crop estimates was mainly due to a combination of lower volumes packed in the Orange River after heavy rain in week one, and higher volumes packed in the Western Cape regions due to higher yields. Again, this highlighted the advantage of the geographical diversity of the five table grape production regions in SA to continue to supply the weekly demands of the industry’s markets, should one or more of the regions not perform up to expectation. All regions, except the Orange River region, packed significantly higher vol- umes than the previous season, ending with the highest volumes packed to date for four of the five production regions. The same four regions all managed to realise higher actual intake volumes than the first crop esti- mate of the season. Other than the above average weather experienced in the three Western Cape production regions, another contributing factor for the higher-than-expected intakes is the increase in planting of new higher yielding cultivars that are continuously coming into full production. However, despite the higher volumes it was an increasingly challenging season that took place amidst continued Covid-19 lockdowns in South Africa as well as most export markets. As the 2020/21 season started South Africa entered a second wave of infections in December 2020. This was exacerbated by a global container shortage, which led to short supplies of empty containers to load fruit causing delays in loading of ships while many ships sailed past the Cape Town Port. There were also weather-related delays in the port further compounding the challenges. Cold storage facilities had to put quotas in place to deal with the backlog. All of this caused shipment delays negatively influencing arrivals in faraway destinations like the East. Industry together with port authorities worked hard to relieve the backlogs and to ensure containers became available. SATI launched a China Market Development Campaign, co-sponsored by the Western Cape Department of Agriculture to promote the great tasting South African table grapes in this exciting market from the end of March to end of April 2021. The campaign received widespread media coverage in Chinese trade media while it was well received by end consumers in stores across Tier 1 and 2 cities.

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SATI STATISTICS 2021