Just imagine, taking 56 farmers and farm related people 8500 miles and keeping the group together, for a week! The visits were a perfect blend from small to large producers, those focussed on their traditional approach to those entirely focussed on their overseas consumers.
The Western Cape has:
13 million ha of agricultural land
24% of all farm jobs in SA
72% of the total tree fruit crop – 44% top fruit, 22% stone fruit
Apple production heads three ways:
Local sales = 27%
Export = 44% (R4.41 billion pa)
Processed = 30%
TOTAL = 920,406 tonnes
Pear production
Local = 15%
Export = 48% (R1.9bn pa)
Processed = 35%
Dried = 3% (lovely pics for this one
TOTAL = 410,840 tonnes
Stone fruit is worth R 2,2 billion
Dominated by the peaches and nectarines for the processing industry
Plums 75% exported
The climate of the western cape is such that trees remain highly productive (some varieties) well into their 5th decade, on the converse, varietal development programmes are such that orchard structures are built to service two or three generations of trees over their 30 year lifespan. Throughout the trip there was a theme of investment into tissue culture and stringent controls on the importation of plant material as a push towards more biological/IPM practices reduces the, until now, enviable plant production arsenal. For both top and soft fruit growers the volume of class one product is reduced by the impact of searing heat at harvest; shade netting, large lush leaf canopies and copious irrigation to reduce field heat are a substantial addition to the cost of production.
Looking at soft fruit – we saw the extremes of production at Zetlers with 30 years of mono-cropping strawberries in the same soil through to Haygrove Hermanus Heaven with their detailed management plan, latest technology and absolute control of costs for a crop 90% of which was headed for the UK. The Haygrove operation were aiming for 45 minutes from picking to chiller, graded and then straight to the airport, the fruit appearing on shelves in the UK within 3 days of harvest. Careful scheduling, chilling, stripping and staggered planting for floricane raspberries they are consistently cropping 25t/ha from 16,000 canes/ha. There are big challenges in their system, all soft fruit growers reported challenges with phytopthera, causing crop loss and yield reduction, Haygrove were adding peroxide to their irrigation water for the first time to combat this.
Top fruit growers face very similar challenges, sun scorch is a huge issue for top and stone fruit and currently the whole western cape is bone dry with no sign of rain and stored water running very low. There was talk in February of rationing and irrigation having to stop. The most impressive top fruit business we saw was that of Alastair Moodie and the Fruitways team; a great example of the kind of business growth that has been possible over there.
The facts about Fruitways:
The people – 420 permanent, 2300 seasonal, 2500 alliance employees, estimated 25000 dependents
Foundation – Childcare crèches, healthcare clinics, resources centres and bursaries
Marketing - 7.5m cartons – 14% of SA apples and 6% of total SA pears
Packing - Melpack, Molteno and Valley – 5.2m cartons, 2 pre-graders, 99,000 bin CA capacity storage
Farming – Graymead, Eikenhof, Applegarth, Glen Elgin, Grabouw, Jackal River = 1200ha apples and pears
Alistair joined the business in 1971 and over the following 4 decades he and his family have grown the business to 14% of SA apple and 6% of SA pear production. There are also 40 farmers in the Fruitways alliance bringing an additional 1500ha into the production group, the group now has international sales provision and leading packing and storage services across 3 centralised sites.
Whilst politics threatens the traditional farming culture in some regions, the Western Cape provides so much employment and food for the nation, huge contribution to international trade its position is secure for the time being. Its productivity is enviable as is the potential for growth.