It is anticipated that rain will continue across the Western and Eastern Cape as a cutoff low crosses the Cape. The snow has fallen on the mountains of Western as well as the Eastern Cape.
“Given the rainfall that has recently occurred and the increased moisture of soil over areas of Western as well as the Eastern Cape, sporadic heavy rains may increase the likelihood of flooding” is the warning from the South African Weather Service in an announcement today.
Over Boland mountains
The Western Cape the rain is likely to impact the soft citrus that is still on the trees pretty extensively. The mild citrus season is very beginning: in Boland certain producers have completed clementines. However, in Citrusdal there are clementines in the trees to allow colour to develop.
The imminent rain will put an immense pressure on Southern Cape’s soft-citrus exports.
Rain constrains availability
The South African citrus crop is planted across a vast geographical area and has very diverse climates. However, there’s been such a huge amount of fall rain in South Africa – both in the winter and summer rain areas that the citrus producers inform FreshPlaza that it’s difficult to locate enough citrus.
“With all the recent rain, I’m running out of all my orders,”” declares an exporter. “Usually in the event that I’m not able to obtain the fruit in one region it’s possible travel from region area, starting that is, from Limpopo to KwaZulu-Natal as well as to the Eastern Cape and ending in Western Cape to fill up demands as the ship travels between Durban towards Port Elizabeth and Cape Town However, this year has seen rain across all areas, which has slowed down production.”
Everyone is in short supply, everybody is suffering from the loss of days to harvest due to the rain. it is now predicted that more rain will be forecast, and could cancel the majority of next week’s scheduled fruit picking too.
Western Cape producers grow their fruit in a non-citrus spot, which means both Europe as well as the USA can be accessed.
The colder spring temperatures in Europe as well as England has boosted demand for citrus.
“In Europe and in the UK consumers are clamoring for fruits,” says a trader. “Spain is essentially over, and record prices are being set for the oranges that come that come from Egypt. The country is realizing that they do not have enough oranges to fill the remainder of the growing season.”
Cape Town’s port Cape Town in the rain
Mitchell Brooke from the Citrus Growers’ Association reveals an underlying silvery tinge to the cloud that has brought many rains into South Africa.
In the latest edition of the newsletter, the author states: “Recent heavy rains in the region of the Eastern Cape] could see production decline for a short time, allowing logistical systems to recoup following some limitations that were triggered from the increased production as well as interruptions caused by the rain.”