The rainfalls in the past three years seem to be bearing fruit, quite literally. This as the Western Cape agriculture department stated that they are expecting a good harvest for the province.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Western Cape MEC for Agriculture, Ivan Meyer, said the Western Cape has received good rainfall since 2018 following a prolonged period of limited precipitation.
According to the deciduous fruit organisation, Hortgro’s exports estimates report, apple exports are projected to increase by 6% in 2022. Likewise, pear exports estimates for 2022 show an increase of 12% for this season compared to the previous season.
Nectarines exports are projected to grow by 26% compared to the previous season. Regions showing positive growth are Ceres, Berg River, Klein Karoo and Stellenbosch.
“In light of many disruptions to international trade due to Covid-19, trade facilitation bottlenecks continue to threaten the reliable supply of key agricultural products. These, among others, relate to trade infrastructure, e.g. capacity of ports and tariff and non-tariff barriers,” he said.
He added that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in a sharp increase in some commodity prices such as fertilisers and wheat due to limited supply and growing uncertainty for future supply. “Despite this, agriculture is pushing forward, as evidenced by projected harvests for various products,” he said.
The peach exports are projected to show positive growth of 2% this season compared to the previous one. In addition, positive growth for the inspection region was reported for Ceres and Berg River at 7% and 10%, respectively, compared to the previous season.
“This is good news. The Western Cape agricultural sector is export-orientated and contributes 53% to national agricultural exports. In 2020, the Western Cape Province exported R78.68 billion worth of combined agricultural and agri-processing products. Eight of the ten biggest export products from the Western Cape have an agricultural foundation. So agriculture is pushing forward,” he said.
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