2026 Harvest Tracker

As the 2026 pecan harvest moves closer to completion, SAPPA’s Harvest Tracker is providing an increasingly useful indication of how this season is progressing compared with previous years.

By the end of Week 32, South African handlers had received approximately 48,124 tonnes of pecans. Looking at the 2022–2025 seasons, approximately 86% of the final crop had, on average, been received by this stage of the harvest.

Based on the historical rate of harvest progression, the latest calculation points to a potential final harvest of approximately 56,240 tonnes.

What is particularly encouraging is that this is not an isolated result based on a single week. Over the past five weeks, the 2026 harvest has consistently followed a similar progression to the average harvest curve of the previous four seasons.

Despite the proportion of the crop received increasing from approximately 50% in Week 28 to 86% in Week 32, the projected final crop has remained remarkably stable. During these five weeks, the model has consistently indicated a crop of between 55,800 and 56,400 tonnes.

This consistency strengthens the indication that the 2026 harvest is currently progressing broadly in line with the average harvest pattern observed over the previous four seasons. As a greater proportion of the crop is received, the historical comparison also becomes increasingly informative, as the projection is based on a progressively smaller portion of the crop still outstanding.

It is important, however, to emphasise that the Harvest Tracker does not represent SAPPA’s official crop estimate. It is an additional data-driven tool used alongside SAPPA’s broader crop estimation methodology.

Historical averages provide a useful benchmark, but no two seasons are identical. The timing of harvesting and deliveries, differences between production regions, weather conditions, processor capacity and other seasonal factors can all influence the rate at which the remaining crop is received. The final 2026 crop may therefore still differ from the projection indicated by the historical harvest curve.

Nevertheless, the fact that five consecutive weeks have produced very similar projections provides increasing confidence in the current trend. With 48,124 tonnes already received by the end of Week 32, the coming weeks should provide an increasingly clear picture of where the 2026 South African pecan crop will ultimately finish.