Our 2021-22 season started off on a very positive note with good fertility on all varieties. We had high expectations for a very promising season on the back of the end of the COVID 19 pandemic. Little did we know that another wave of new variants would strike around the world or expect the outbreak of the Russia/Ukraine war, both of which were totally unexpected developments.
Like the rest of the global agricultural sector, we have been faced with huge increases in the basic production costs and the massive increase in freight rates, and unfortunately our industry has not been able to pass any of these cost increases on to our final customers. This has had dire financial consequences.
In addition to feeling the direct effects of the current global logistical challenges, we have also faced additional weather challenges. January is our peak production period and usually we do not experience rain during this time. This year, however, between Week 1 and Week 4 we received around rain, but despite this challenge, we still managed to export 5750 tonnes of grapes, just 2 % below our initial crop estimate.