South Africa: new persimmon varieties
by Market Insider
Tuesday, 10 May. 2016
While drought has put the strain on volumes this year the prospects for the exports of South African persimmons present an optimistic long-term outlook.
The drought in South Africa has pushed down volumes of persimmons this season, although fruit quality remains good with slightly smaller sizes available; overall volumes have decreased between 10% and 15% this year, mainly as a result of the country’s worst drought since the early 1980s.
For some considerable time now, areas of the country have been hard-hit by the drought which some believe has been exacerbated by the weather cycles of El Niño and climate change.
The season is around half way at the moment as it normally start in March and finish up in June; production should last until early June this year while the supply will go into July.
South Africa production will significantly increase by 2020 as new plantings are planned to occur later this year and into 2017. However, growth is expected not within the current varieties: Rojo Brillante, a Spanish variety, will be the main new production, even though it will not be straight away.
In Europe there is a very big growth of the newer varieties and South Africa wants to be part of it in the counter season. Europe, in particular Germany, absorbs large volumes of South African persimmons; the U.K. is a growing market with roughly 10% to 15% of the export volumes while small volumes go the Middle East, the Far East and Canada.
Once the 2016 export will be over, plans for the new variety Rojo Brillante will gather pace.
Source: Freshfruitportal