Black frost devastates major grape-producing area in Western Cape
FARMERS in the Western Cape’s Breedekloof Wine Valley face a poor grape harvest after being hit by "devastating" black frost. Wine is SA’s largest agricultural export, with the county’s nearly 100,000ha of vineyards, mostly situated in the Western Cape near the coast, accounting for about 3% of the world production. Breedekloof Wine Valley supplies an estimated 26% of its yearly grape harvest to South African wineries. But now with the black frost farmers fear they may be unable to meet demand in 2017. Grape farmers have described the frost as "the most devastating the valley has seen in 21 years". Black frost occurs when temperatures fall below zero and there is not enough moisture in the air to produce visible frost. It results in internal freezing and death of plant tissue which turns blackish. A week of unexpectedly cold spring weather in the Western Cape resulted in black frost affecting several pockets of vineyards in the Breedekloof Valley on Wednesday night last week. "I can...
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