A letter from Greg Lang, IFTA Education Director

Ever wonder why IFTA has been looking forward to the chance to visit South Africa’s orchards since our last Southern Hemisphere trip (New Zealand, 2018)? Pears and peaches were brought to South Africa by the Dutch in 1665, and while commercial apple production did not begin until the 1880s, today it represents the largest (33%) of the country’s diverse deciduous fruit crop industries, dominated by Golden Delicious, Gala, Pink Lady, Granny Smith, and Fuji. South Africa is a leading international pear exporter, and is the largest stone fruit producer on the African continent, known for exceptional quality in Europe.

The Western Cape, where IFTA will visit, is the largest traditional production region for apples, pears, and stone fruits, and accounts for more than half of all South African apples and pears grown. Sweet cherries are a fast-growing industry in this region as well, with varieties like Bing, Hedelfinger, Royal Dawn, Royal Hazel, and Staccato, supplying exports to the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Europe, Russia, and China. Cherries, apricots and plums should all be ripe when we visit!

With a chance to see tree fruits of every kind, talk with growers about their unique challenges and adoptions of new orchard technologies, and, oh, perhaps see a few exotic animals along the way like baboons, ostriches, elephants, giraffes, lions, rhinos, etc., it is no wonder that South Africa has been high on IFTA’s international study tour planning list for more than a decade!

~ Greg Lang

IFTA Education Director