Breathing a sigh of relief as this year’s summer has so far not been hammered by the same sweltering heat waves South Africa felt last year and which caused grapes to ripen faster, Cape Town-based producer and exporter, SAFE (South African Fruit Exporters) says it is well on track to meet its 2017 grape harvesting deadlines and volume targets. It expects to exceed last year’s figures by nearly 400 000 cartons.
“Although the fluctuating temperatures of December last year and January this year caused a 10-day delay in the ripening process, we’ve made provision for this probability at the beginning of the harvesting season. Overall production on our six table grape farms in the Northern and Western Cape are on schedule. In fact, so far our harvesting figures are up 21% compared to the same time last year,” says Dries van Rooyen, General Manager of Farming Operations, SAFE.
In the Orange River area, the harvesting season is nearing its end with 90% of the grapes already in their cartons; the picking and packing process here should be wrapped up within the next week. In the Western 
Cape and Trawal areas, 60% of harvesting has been completed, with five more weeks of picking and packing left for SAFE’s farms.
While last year’s warmer-than-average winter led to slightly smaller than estimated harvest volumes in early areas (e.g. a 10% decrease in the Orange River area’s white cultivars), it offered later varieties a longer rest period and “more time to wake up”, explains Van Rooyen.
This resulted in excellent flowering and bearing, and a return to normal volumes for the later cultivars – as experienced before last year’s heat waves. “As this evens out our production figures, I believe we’ll reach our estimated production target of 1 336 456 cartons,” he says. Last year, SAFE consigned 937 433 cartons from its six table grape farms.
The Western Cape farms’ last white seedless varieties are already boxed, while the area’s Crimson (red seedless) harvesting has been underway for the last two-and-a-half weeks. “These vineyards are already producing more than originally projected. It’s now mostly the black seedless and the seeded varieties that still need to make their way to the pack house,” says Van Rooyen.
SAFE is also har
vesting and exporting three new red seedless varieties this year: Jack’s Salute, Tawny and Magenta. With their large berries and striking magenta-pink colour they are fast becoming some of the exporter’s most sought after varieties. SAFE is establishing altogether nine new table grape varieties, including the seedless Sweet Celebration and Allison which are also scheduled for export.
“So far we’ve had a smooth season with good labour relations and we’re also extremely pleased with the quality of the grapes arriving on our export markets’ shelves,” he says. SAFE exports to the European Union, United Kingdom, and the Far and Middle East.
“While we’ve had some rain it didn’t cause any harvest losses, thanks to the fact that our sensitive cultivars are covered with plastic as a kind of umbrella in the event of rain. This has proven to be so successful, that SAFE is looking at covering more of our vines in the near future,” he says.
SAFE’s table grape farms – of which three are Fairtrade accredited – produce 31 varieties of white, red and black seedless and seeded fruit on a little over 800 hectares, with 40% of cultivated areas under nets and 27% planted with vines younger than three years. Altogether 89% of the crop consists of seedless varieties.