A CHALLENGING SEASON-BUT NOTHING WE HADNT SEEN BEFORE.

Last season saw a few ups and downs for the South African grape producers: Namibia with a good harvest, worries about not enough rain, then too much, the thread of hail just when the harvest is ready. How the different markets would be and a constant worry for South African exporters: the exchange rate.

"Different areas had different challenges," according to Pieter Karsten from the Karsten Group. "The Namibian season was looking strong and then just dropped off short of the expected finishing date which was positive for the growers on the Orange River in South Africa, but we also had quite a bit of production ourselves and were fairly early on the white which put the market under pressure. The late grapes from the Orange River had trouble with rain which lead to quality issues.

Production of the red varieties was good but prices were a bit under pressure in some market sectors, crimson did well though. Most of South Africa's grape growers are trialling new varieties, most of them late red ones, some of which are already in commercial volumes.

"We have a few of the new varieties in commercial volumes but you really can't tell how successful they are going to be from just a couple seasons, they need to be tried and tested over a few seasons," explains Pieter.  "Climatic conditions and market conditions differ each season, so the grapes have to go for a couple of years before you know which ones will be the best all round varieties. All in all it was a challenging season but nothing that we hadn't seen before."

South Africa's currency is always a bit volatile and for a while it strengthened making it more challenging for the exporters, but now the political situation has weakened it again. This good for exports at the moment but most exporters will agree that long term it is not a good thing. The whole political situation is unstable and Pieter reckons they are in for a rough ride as the fight for the leadership of the ANC continues.

Although there has been good rain in parts of the country, water levels in the Cape are critical, not just for agriculture but also for the populations of the towns where they are potentially running out of water. Cape Town needs to have a cold winter with snow on the mountains. Pieter is not aware of any crop losses on grapes at this point, but if this is another low rainfall winter it is going to be difficult. NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.