South Africa's 2020 vintage set to be at least as large as 2019, but lower than 5 year average
South Africa’s 2020 harvest is set to be at least as big as the 2019 vintage, but still lower than the five year average.
Accoridng to the South African Wine Industry Information & Systems (SAWIS) the country produced 1.244m tonnes in 2019, compared to the average five year wine grape crop of 1.36m tonnes.
“At this early stage we evaluate the wine grape crop size according to the prevailing seasonal conditions up to now,” said Conrad Schutte, consultation service manager of the wine industry body Vinpro.
“Depending on the cultivar and wine goal, the grapes will still develop and ripen over the next 60 to 100 days before being harvested. In this window, the environmental conditions and management inputs will have a substantial effect on the final harvest quality and size.”
Most wine grape growing regions have experienced a good season to date, with the exception of the Northern Cape where widespread frost caused damage, and the Klein Karoo where producers have had to contend with the ongoing drought. Good winter rainfall has helped boost the Western Cape’s dam levels, which were 82% full in mid-September at the start of the growing season, and good winter rainfall have seen the Western Cape’s dam levels reach 82% by mid-September, at the beginning of the growing season. This is up from the 70% recorded 2018 and only 37% at the same time in 2017.
In the Olifants river region the Clanwilliam dam is currently at 85%, which was hit hard by the drought in previous years. Certain other areas, however, are still in the grip of an ongoing drought, including the Klein Karoo region, and in many cases it has reached critical levels. Producers in the Robertson region who receive water from the Brandvlei dam have sufficient water, but those who are reliant on run-off from the mountains are under severe pressure.
“The Northern Cape received almost no rainfall in the course of the season, but dams had sufficient water and we hope that the good rainfall at the beginning of December continues in the next few weeks,” said Schutte. Favourable weather conditions in spring contributed to earlier than normal and even budbreak and Schutte is positive about the amount of flower bunches and good set observed in October.
“Spring was warmer than usual, but conditions varied and the coastal region was particularly windy,” he said, adding that parts of the Northern Cape were hit by heavy frost damage at the end of October, which could contribute to substantial crop losses.
A mostly warm windy November led to vines growing at a faster rate and Schutte urged producers to monitor and manage the higher than usual risk of disease. “If producers continuously adapt their vineyard management practices with the environmental conditions, we expect the 2020 wine grape harvest will be equal to or somewhat larger than in 2019."
SAWIST will issue its next harvest report on 24 January 2020.