Food: Citrus Growing in South Africa

South Africa is the world’s second largest citrus fruit exporter after Spain.

Today, the country’s citrus fruit farming industry is worth nearly 2 billion € and represents 37% of the country’s exports.
Over 1 million tons of oranges, 280,000 tons of lemons and 200,000 tons of mandarins and grapefruits are exported annually, mainly to Europe.
South Africa’s success in exporting citrus fruit is largely due to produce arriving during the counter-season in the northern hemisphere.
Huge citrus-growing estates, among the largest in the world, are located in the irrigated valleys of the Transvaal, as seen here in the Pléiades Neo imagery of estates located near the town of Nelspruit.