A week after severe hailstorms hit fruit farms in Langkloof in the Eastern Cape, the full extent of damage to apple and pear orchards is beginning to emerge.
According to Hortgro’s operations manager, Mariette Kotze, about 1 500 hectares of apple and pear orchards were deeply bruised by hailstones.
“The total loss in export volumes is anticipated to be in the order of 1.2 million cartons. This represents between 20% to 25% of their normal export crop,” Kotze told Food For Mzansi.
She added the majority of the apples and pears that were impacted cannot be delivered to the juicing plants. “The damage was too severe, therefore [there is] no recovery on the volumes lost.”
Hail insurance
This is not the first time damaging hail has made landfall in this region, bruising fruit and costing farmers hundreds of thousands of Rands. Over years farmers have invested in hail insurance, and some of the 1 500 hectares of apple and pear orchards could be insured.
Langkloof farmer Marius van der Westhuizen, Hortgro’s representative in the area, told Food For Mzansi that hail insurance is tricky.
“You have to decide ahead of time what you’re going to insure, and you don’t know where the hail is going fall, and how badly,” he said.
“And hail insurance is terribly expensive. This is a very high risk for an insurance company, so the premium is also a large amount, and you cannot insure everything.”
Unfortunately, damage to fruit trees is not included in the disaster management framework, which means affected farmers will not receive financial assistance from the government either.
“Most of the farmers do have some degree of insurance, however, the losses experienced are mostly for their own account without assistance from the government,” Kotze confirmed.
Anti-hail netting protection
Hail insurance only covers a percentage of the total damage, Van der Westhuizen explained.
“As a farmer, you have to pay the first 20% of the damage. So, if the damage is 40%, you only have a 20% claim. If your damage is 80%, you actually only have a 60% claim,” he said.
There is an option for anti-hail netting protection for fruit trees and plants, but this is a costly exercise.
“In Langkloof there are about 6 140 hectares of apples and pears of which less than 2 000 hectares are covered by nets. Approximately 4 000 hectares have not been covered with nets. This is where one sees the damage,” Van der Westhuizen said.
Proper protection will take years
As far as he is concerned, it will be years before all farmers in the region have closed their orchards with anti-hail netting.
Drape net, the cheapest form of protection, costs about R120 000 per hectare, he explained.
Furthermore, a farmer interested in a fixed structure netting will cough up anything from R250 000 to R550 000 per hectare, said Van der Westhuizen.
Later this week, Hortgro board members will meet with Langkloof farmers, including Van der Westhuizen, to discuss the extent of the damage and the next steps.
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