Eastern Cape citrus farmers are racing against time to protect crops and infrastructure as forecasts of heavy rainfall threaten to deepen losses already running into millions of rand following last month’s devastating floods.
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued a Level 5 warning for disruptive rainfall between Wednesday and Friday across parts of the province, including Kouga, Koukamma Municipality and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
For farmers in the Gamtoos River Valley, one of South Africa’s key citrus-producing regions, the warning comes as they continue to recover from severe flooding that damaged orchards, roads, and irrigation infrastructure.
According to Agri Gamtoos vice-chairperson Grewar Oosthuizen, the floods had a major financial impact on the region’s agricultural sector.
“The percentage of the crop that was impacted is about 20 to 25%. And if we put a monetary value on that, you’re talking about R600 million in income losses for this season alone,” he said.
Oosthuizen added that vegetable producers in the area have been hit even harder.
“We also have a few larger vegetable farmers that do vegetable farming and prepacking for the supermarkets, and the losses of the vegetable farmers were actually quite high, up to 80% of the crops were lost.”
The losses extend beyond individual farms, affecting packhouses, transport operators, export logistics and workers who depend on the agricultural value chain.
Urgent harvesting efforts before storm
With more rain on the horizon, farmers are trying to salvage as much produce as possible before conditions deteriorate.
Citrus farmer Waldo Kleyn said harvesting operations have been intensified as an effort to reduce potential losses.
“So, preparing for that weather, we try to pick as much as we can to get them to the packhouses and to see if we can at least save something,” he said.
“On the predicted rain coming this week, we’re just busy clearing roads and clearing debris that was still left on bridges just to prevent another chaos coming and further damage to infrastructure.”
Local authorities are also preparing for possible flooding in vulnerable areas.
Eastern Cape Agriculture MEC Nonceba Kontsiwe urged residents and farmers to remain vigilant and move livestock away from flood-prone areas.
“The only thing that we can advise communities on the warning of the rain that is coming in a few days is for people to avoid being in the low-lying areas. Even their livestock must be taken away from the low-lying areas,” she said.
“For the fruit and the trees, we can only pray they don’t get damaged that much because there’s nothing we can do as they are fixed to the soil.”
Kouga Municipality Mayor Hattingh Bornman said municipal teams were working to clear stormwater systems and debris to minimise the impact of further rainfall.
“We do expect certain areas to flood, specifically in towns, and where water is still standing and dammed up. We are working hard to make sure that we get those areas opened and cleared, stormwater clear, and roads in a safe driving condition” he said.
For many small producers, the concern is that another severe weather event could not only destroy more crops but also delay the region’s recovery and place further pressure on one of the Eastern Cape’s most important agricultural industries.
