fbpx

South Africa’s Plums Ripen Into Big Business

South Africa’s Plums Ripen Into Big Business

From CNN/Written by

Enjoying the first bite of a fresh juicy plum may well be described as a simple pleasure, but the process from farm to mouth involves careful planning and precision.

In South Africa, the journey for many plums starts in the picturesque Franschhoek Valley in the Western Cape, where the climate is well-suited for growing the stone fruit.

“We’ve got a slightly cooler summer than the rest of the area,” explains Jan Hoon Marketing Manager at Franschhoek Fruit Packers. “Plums prefer cooler temperatures during the growing area of the plum, from after flowering until harvesting. So the time of the fruit on the tree is more, compared to other areas.”

And it is plums that are the most important stone fruit to the South African economy, making up a bigger share of both production and exports than peaches and apricots. According to horticultural experts Hortgro, almost 16 million cartons of stone fruit were exported during the 2013-14 season, of which 10.5 million cartons were plums.

 

 

Read more at CNN