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The thing with farming organics is: You can’t ranch what we do.

An organic citrus grower in the Eastern Cape says they have found a way of ameliorating Europe’s cold steri protocol, which caused losses among their wax- and fungicide-free organic oranges since its controversial introduction in 2022.

“It’s the fourth year of the cold steri protocol and we’ve learnt to navigate it,” explains Paul Marais of SOGA Organic, the only certified organic citrus juice producer in South Africa. “The cold steri protocol is not a guaranteed disaster if you step down the temperature over four or five days. It’s helping a lot with the quality and minimising the cold burn, though it does mean extra days in the cold rooms.”

The Kirkwood-based SOGA Organic juice processing facility exports about 2,000 tonnes of not-from-concentrate (NFC) juice to Europe and Canada every year.

Availability of organic lime juice set to rise

Hitched to the sturdy wagon of the Sundays River Citrus Company (SRCC), SOGA Organic’s MD says he’s been very bullish about the season ever since their first lemons were shipped at the beginning of April.

The first organic Eastern Cape fresh navels arrived late last week in Rotterdam, continuing a strong season during which demand exceeds supply. There are fewer organic citrus growers in South Africa than before, he remarks, and organic supply is lower as a result.

Organic mandarins – mostly Nadorcotts and Novas – compose a fraction of their crop.

The newest addition to their ten citrus juice lines is lime juice from their five-year-old lime orchards. “We planted the limes with the intention of going into our local retail juice programmes. Last year, we went in with a small supply. This year, we’ve got a lot more.”

As the lime trees mature and the volumes increase, SOGA Organic will start looking at supplying the wholesale markets in Europe.

Consumers react to evidence linking pesticides

“The lion’s share of our crop goes to Europe. There’s a fair amount that goes to Canada and then also to the UK. The organic market in Canada has been growing quite well over the last five years,” he says. “Every year, the demand gets bigger and bigger.”

What drives it is the unending stream of medical studies adding weight to the evidence against pesticides. On his farms, not a droplet of glyphosate has ever fallen. “There are some really bad residues out there in our food system in general, and I think people are becoming more and more conscious of that.”

Many in the fruit industry would argue that it is impossible to produce fruit on South Africa’s scale without pesticides, and Marais would not necessarily disagree. “The thing in farming organics is: You can’t ranch what we do.”

When he and the other like-minded farmers of SOGA Organic decided to take the untrodden road, Marais reminds us, there was no set programme or blueprint to follow, and much scepticism.

They cannot spray their problems away, and yet, his orchards and those of his fellow organic farmers are not overwhelmed by citrus black spot. “Conventional farmers are interested in how we do it. The short answer is that there’s always a way that nature fights pests and diseases, and we look for that way. What causes the disease? It’s got to do with the removal of leaves, adding enough compost down there to decompose the leaves. It’s about getting the soil incredibly healthy, then the tree will be healthy and in a better position to deal with diseases like black spot.”

Organic farming is extremely rewarding

Even now, after 23 years, it’s not easy. “Every day from September through to April, you have to be on top of your game, but,” he adds, “it is extremely rewarding. It gives me a good feeling.”

Step into his orchards, he says, and you’ll immediately sense a difference from a conventionally farmed orchard. “We have plenty of wildlife in our orchards, birds, bees, and I even find chameleons in the orchards sometimes. A lot of ladybirds and a lot of predatory mites. We release parasitic wasps in our orchards to deal with things like scale and mealybug.”

Mown tall grass between the tree rows is a tremendous source of nutrients for earthworms. “It’s tonnes and tonnes of green mulching happening naturally in the orchards. I consider the grasses growing there not as competition for the trees, but actually as food for the soil. We try to get through there once a month during summer, and when I cut them, it goes back into the ground, feeding all the micro-organisms in the soil and the earthworms.”

Vermicompost is the number one generator of nitrogen on his farms. “You can feel a sense of life and harmony in the orchards. By contrast, conventional orchards feel very sterile to me.”

Original Article here: https://www.freshplaza.com/africa/article/9744221/the-thing-with-farming-organics-is-you-can-t-ranch-what-we-do/

Credit: © FreshPlaza.com / Carolize Jansen