South African stone fruit industry reports record volumes this season
With the arrival of May, Hortgro, South Africa’s deciduous fruit grower organisation, is reflecting on the end of one of their most successful stone fruit seasons to date from a volume perspective. The growers are looking ahead to their top fruit season as South African apples and pears start to arrive in the UK.
The overwhelming majority of South African stone fruit this year was shipped rather than flown to the UK. During the 2020/21 season, the campaign saw a large increase of 71% for South African plum exports worldwide to 15.2 m cartons. This season also saw a 29% increase in nectarine exports to 6.5 million cartons: with the UK taking 50% of that volume, this made the UK the world’s biggest market for South African nectarines. Peach exports increased by 22% to 2.4 m cartons, with the UK taking 41% of that volume.