Fruit & Nuts

TopFruit is introducing two black-skinned plums with excellent eating quality and early harvest windows. Characterised by their black skin and red flesh, they have been carefully selected and developed to thrive in the Southern African climate.

South Africa’s relatively young macadamia industry has a long way to go to establish optimal farming practices and efficiencies. However, with nut prices falling, producers need to focus on cost savings that will balance inputs with output. Lindi Botha reports on key areas that macadamia farmers should be paying attention to.

Dragon fruit production in South Africa is growing, thanks to increasing demand from Northern Hemisphere countries.

Soaring energy and labour costs have sparked research into new production practices in the fruit industry. Calla du Toit, procurement manager at Tru-Cape, spoke to Glenneis Kriel about these developments.

Three years ago, few would have foreseen that blueberry prices would plunge by more than 50%, forcing many investors to the brink of collapse. Berry farmer Luan Swart of Mpumalanga explained his strategies for weathering the storm to Lindi Botha.

Limpopo farmers Kosie and Manie Eloff, faced with the need to re-establish their avocado orchards, decided to conduct a multiyear experiment comparing the yields of trees planted on ridged and level soil surfaces. They discussed their methods and results with Lindi Botha.

Blueberries are a challenging crop to cultivate, as the plants don’t readily absorb key nutrients, and the berries can therefore vary in flavour, quality and size. With an increasingly picky market, farmers need to optimise plant nutrition to obtain a consistent crop that commands high prices. Lindi Botha spoke to Dr David Marks.

The Lingenfelder brothers have made significant changes to production methods and orchard management since joining their family’s apple and pear farming operation in the Western Cape’s Overberg region. They spoke to Glenneis Kriel about their techniques, precision-farming technologies, and yield increases.

Gerhard Meyer has achieved export success with his top-quality pomegranates. Now he and a group of other Klein Karoo farmers have established a brand specifically for pomegranates grown in this area, promising substantial employment and attracting government support. He spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the project.

For thousands of years, Southern African communities have used the bark, leaves, fruit and kernels of the marula tree for their medicinal and nutritional properties. Martin Rust spoke to Magda du Toit about how his family is exploiting this multi-faceted resource, which occurs naturally on their farm in northern Namibia.

Mahela Group is a third-generation farming business in Limpopo. Eddie Vorster, director of the company’s citrus division, spoke to Magda du Toit about the strategies and farming practices they follow to achieve their considerable success.

Allesbeste Nursery, established in the 1980s, has been expanded many times. Yet the end is still not in sight, according to Zander Ernst, the company’s director of marketing and production. Magda du Toit asked him about the history of Allesbeste and its pioneering efforts to improve South Africa’s avocado production.