THIS year’s date harvest at the Naute Fruit Farm at the Naute Dam in the South promised to be bigger than last year’s, says project manager Mous Boshoff.
Boshoff told The Namibian that this year’s date export is estimated at 180 tonnes compared to last year’s 120 tonnes.Last year’s harvest was small because of heavy rainfall in the area, which spoilt the dates.’This year’s rain had little impact since the proportion of spoilt dates was not that much compared to the previous year,’ Boshoff said. The Naute Fruit Farm, 40 kilometres south of Keetmanshoop, produces the Barhee and Medjool date varieties on an 85-hectare date palm plantation. Since 1998 the farm has annually exported dates to European markets including England, Spain and France.Recently the farm started exporting dates to Canada and Netherlands.Boshoff singled out Spain and England as the biggest buyers.Boshoff could not estimate the expected turnover from date sales this year because of the global recession.’The current economic downturn will definitely have an impact on the sales, and thus makes it difficult to estimate sales turnover,’ he said.He added that a lack of money is hampering expansion plans.Currently the fruit farm employs 76 permanent workers and 250 seasonal workers. The date harvesting season runs from February to March.
