2026 will be an 'on-year' for South-Africa

Travel Review - South-Africa

2026 will be an 'on-year' for South-Africa

South-Africa is one of our valued supplying countries of citrus fruits. Therefore we visit the country and our growers often. Recently our colleague Wesley Deventer visited South-Africa to review the state of affairs for citrus at the fields.

Wesley looks back on his trip, telling: “This year will be an ‘on-year’, as the South-African call it. Although our South-African growers have made some changes in the choice for varieties, this season will be one with good volumes.”

Specifically about mandarins, Wesley noticed: “Due to market developments, our growers have chosen to decrease the amount of hectares of Satsuma mandarins. The variety isn’t that popular as it used to be. Nevertheless, because of the ‘on-year’, this season will have good availability.’’

Quality and the effect of weather conditions

“When visiting the northern part of South-Africa we noticed the impact of the heavy rain from earlier.”, continues Wesley. “In Limpopo and Letsitele we saw that the quality of the fruits have been affected leading to lower brix and acid levels. Furthermore the fruits were quite big, since harvesting during the rain wasn’t possible. Luckily in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape, the weather conditions were dryer resulting in beautiful fruits.

Expectations for this season supplies

The ‘on-year’ promises a lot of good things. Wesley shares his thoughts for the coming season: “Despite the weather conditions which might lead to blackspot on the fruits, shipments will be high, especially in mandarins. Also grapefruits and lemons will be of good availability. Unfortunately it was too early to say anything about oranges. Supply from the North are expected to be high, but also here the rain will probably lead to bigger (watery) fruits.”

Valuable meet-up with our partners

Looking back on this trip, Wesley summarizes: “This trip was very valuable again and gave us good insights on the current market dynamic. Furthermore, the direct contact with growers is both for us and them very positive and has given us a better understanding of the local situation on quality and expectations for coming season. It was a pleasure to see and meet our partners again.”