"It's not an easy year for South African mangoes," remarks a retail buyer after what has been called a 'mini-tornado' tore down the Blyde River Valley, border Mpumalanga/Limpopo, blowing off scores of mangoes from trees on Friday evening.

The South African Weather Service was unable to confirm whether it was, indeed, a tornado.

Many mango producers in Hoedspruit sustained heavy losses from the exceptionally strong wind which picked up plastic crates, leaving them 300m further and damaged infrastructure.

Hail accompanied the wind in places; the industry is calculating the damage to the mango crop.

"We have lost 15% that was damaged by hail and that are not marketable as a result of sun damage when fruit lay on the ground," says Helgard Redelinghuys of Rederburg Estates, a mango and citrus producer in Hoedspruit, Limpopo Province.

"Plus a further 30% of our total crop have hail damage and will now have to go for processing at a lower return. So we're left with 55% of our fruit that is undamaged. This drastically impacts our exports because we'd rather not take the risk right now."

The price for fresh mango on the local market is expected to rise as a result of the reduced mango volumes.

In the preceding weeks, the area was in the grip of a heatwave during which mangoes on the trees measured 45°C, even 50° C internally.

Sunburn has been reported this season not only on mangoes, but on litchis as well.

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com