The citrus export season in South Africa has faced some rough waters this year, pushing many farmers to switch gears and cash in on the more profitable local juice market.
South Africa’s citrus industry operates through three main export corridors and according to Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa (CGA), each corridor faced unique challenges that exacerbated delays and bottlenecks.
The Northern Regions Corridor exports through the ports of Maputo and Durban, the Eastern Cape Corridor uses the ports of Port Elizabeth and Coega, and the Western and Northern Cape Corridor ships goods through Cape Town.
Chadwick said, “The Durban container terminals faced a myriad of equipment challenges that affected ship turn-around times and caused truck delays.”
Logistical setbacks and successes
These logistical setbacks were, however, felt across the country, with the Eastern Cape facing persistent wind disruptions and bottlenecks throughout the season. Despite these hurdles, specialised reefer shipping to key markets like Japan, China, and the USA remained consistent.
One of the positive developments this year was the increase in reefer plug capacity at ports, allowing for more efficient cooling of citrus during transport.
“There were occasions when plug capacity reached close to 100%. The Maputo port performed well despite the decreased production,” Chadwick said.
Despite the reduced production, there were times when shipping capacity was almost fully used – close to 100% – allowing exports to continue as efficiently as they could, given the challenges.
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High juice prices tempt farmers
According to Absa’s AgriTrends Spring Report 2024, the 2024 citrus export season saw heatwaves affecting fruit size in the North to floods in the Western Cape just as the export season from this region started to gain traction.
“Frost during July in areas such as Weipe and Groblersdal also affected fruit quality and contributed to a downward adjustment in export volumes from this region,” stated the report.
However, while farmers produced less fruit because of these problems, the high demand and good prices in the juice market helped make up for those losses.
Uzair Essack, a Western Cape-based citrus exporter, said citrus farmers who usually export fresh fruit, turned to juicing this season due to a sharp rise in orange juice prices.
“Local juice prices were very high, at times reaching up to R6 per kilo, so a lot of farmers just opted to take their fruit to juice because it’s risk-free and they got a good price anyways,” Essack explained.
Many growers, enticed by the better returns from juicing, opted for the safer and more profitable processing route.
According to the Absa report, El Niño conditions and the spread of citrus greening in Brazil, which is the world’s largest producer of orange juice, kept global prices and local prices of orange juice at record levels.
“This effectively creates a floor price for class-2 and class-3 fruit, for which supply was firm during the past few months due to the climatic issues listed above. This supported positive on-farm margins,” the report said.
Meanwhile, Essack added that the late-season black frost was particularly damaging to crops in the northern regions, further reducing yields.
“Volumes countrywide on all citrus were like 30% down, at least on our side. The reason for that was the lack of production, then there was some frost in the northern regions,” Essack said.
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