February 24, 2011 - Floods in South Africa affect our raisin growers at EAC

Floodwaters in the Orange River area

One of our key farmer co-operatives for the raisins that go in all of our Geobars – Eksteenskuil Agricultural Cooperative (EAC) in South Africa – is located in the Orange River area which has recently been severely affected by flooding and heavy rains, damaging many of their homes and vineyards.

 Although the raisin crop won’t be harvested until the end of March, we currently think that the crop could be down by as much as 50%. The average rainfall over the last 8 years in the area has been 145mm, so there is quite a lot of rain, but rainfall so far this year has already reached 218mm and we are only in the middle of February!

 Traidcraft is working closely with EAC to support them as much as we can during this tough time and will keep you posted.