HARVEST: The Namibian grape season starts this week. 
Photo: Namibian Agronomic Board
HARVEST: The Namibian grape season starts this week. Photo: Namibian Agronomic Board

Grape season kicks off

RONELLE RADEMEYER
The Namibian grape season kicks off in earnest this week.

A small amount of table grapes will be packed next week and from the second week of November, large volumes will be packed, Kobus Bothma, vice-chairperson of the Namibian Grape Growers Association, said.

This year, the association expects an estimated harvest of 8.6 million cartons in which the grapes are packed. Each carton weighs 4.5 kg.

This is a million cartons more than last year when the harvest was significantly smaller than initially expected, Bothma told FreshPlaza, an online news page for the fresh produce industry.

"There are certainly enough grapes in the vineyards to meet this year's estimate and the grapes look very good," he said.

"It is not an early season; we’re starting to harvest at the usual time."

He said a gap is likely to develop during the early European season as grape exporters from South America are set to market their grapes closer to home due to shipping costs.

"We expect that there will be fewer grapes available in Europe. Everyone will try to find markets closer to home," Bothma said.

African markets

Europe and the United Kingdom are still the mainstay markets for Namibian (and South African) grapes. The first South African grapes will also be harvested next week. However, markets in Africa are developing well and at a fast pace for southern African grapes, absorbing between 5% and 8% of total table grape exports.

According to Bothma, African buyers increasingly prefer higher specification table grapes, which is a positive development for the industry. Namibia does not yet have table grape access to China.

“We send grapes to Malaysia and Singapore. Not large volumes; about 2% of our grapes will probably go to the Far East," he said. Furthermore, Namibia will also export grapes to South Africa.

“The market is always good early in the season, but it also falls very quickly as the supply increases,” he said.

Controlling costs

"Managing the entire value chain, while controlling costs as far as possible, is the single biggest challenge facing table grape producers this season," he added. "There are signs that shipping costs are starting to drop, but the Cape Town port remains a challenge, as do South Africa's power outages and load shedding."

Namibian grapes are packed in refrigerated containers and transported by truck across the border to the port of Cape Town, which is exempt from load shedding. However, adjacent cold rooms - where there are, for example, no power points available at the harbour - are indeed subjected to scheduled power outages, Bothma told FreshPlaza.

Unlike South Africa, Namibia has a stable power supply. Ironically, Namibia partly relies on imported South African electricity, but is increasingly expanding its electricity supply to sustainable generation sources such as solar power.

"The Namibian government has invested heavily in green energy and a large number of solar farms and wind turbines have been erected in the past year," he explained in the interview.

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-07

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