Hailstorms last Tuesday in South Africa's Northern Cape Province damaged table grape crops belonging to three major producers, with full damage assessments still be carried out. 

The poor weather was experienced in Onseepkans, near the Orange River banks close to the Namibian border, with Capespan South Africa, the Karsten Group, and AS Viljoen all affected.

Capespan grapes COO Bernie Denton, who was present during the storms, told www.freshfruitportal.com it was still too early to give an indication of the full extent of the damage.

"One of our farms has been hit from hail, I've just returned from one of the farms now," he said.

Assessors are due to visit the affected farms today to carry out a full survey of crop damage.

"The reality is that obviously it's been quite bad for some of the farmers. One of Capespan's farms has been damaged as well."

Denton added the storms only took their toll on grape crops in that one specific location, which is said to be 'quite far' from normal production areas.

Estimates made publically available put the crop lost at around 5%.

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