Nichola Watson
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Nice_Green_Apples.jpg/2204px-Nice_Green_Apples.jpg
A
t the start of the season
there were big concerns
about quality and size of
the apples ready for harvesting in South Africa, but it has
turned out be quite a reasonable
season after all.
"Overall it has been a busy season
and it is going well," explains Roelf
Pienaar, managing director of TruCape Fruit Marketing. "We have had
some initial challenges with keeping
quality and size due to the extreme
heat but it is going better than was
expected."
He said the smaller fruit has put
pressure on them to find the right
markets for the fruit. "Traditionally
the UK took the smaller fruit, but
we did manage to find other markets in the Far and Middle East. The
UK started later this year and the
window there is smaller because
they are buying more British apples
now than before, but hopefully we
will go on a bit later so it may equal
out."
What is encouraging in Africa just
now is the increase in the oil price,
it has broken the 50 dollars a barrel
mark, but according to Roelf they
are not out of the woods yet but it
is getting better. The volumes of
Goldens shipped to that market are
up 20% in volume year on year. He
explains that the main aim in Nigeria specifically, is to get in before
Ramadan. Despite fears at the beginning of the season about the
ability of African markets to absorb
the volumes it is going better that
they had expected.
"A small amount of South African
apples have been shipped to China,
but this is a market that needs to
build up again as we have been
away for quite a while," explains
Roelf. "We don't always have the
sizes needed for this market. Where
we are strong in Asia is Malaysia,
and Singapore, China has potential
but it will take time, once it opens
up for pears there will be an opportunity for varieties such as Forrell."
In China, South Africa are competing with countries such as New Zealand and Australia who have closer
proximity and have better trade
deals, making it much more favourable for them. "It is an exciting market, a bit like Africa a few years
ago, there are big opportunities
there. The quality needs to be right,
you need to hit the market at the
right time and you need the right
receivers/partners there," explains
Roelf.
Tru Cape grows apples in two major
areas, Grabouw and Ceres. Our
overall volumes from Grabouw
were very good, but we were down
out of Ceres. Volumes available for
export of Pink Ladys are down, Forrell pears were also down but overall total volumes were up.
"The rand is still weaker against the
Dollar, Euro and Pound which puts
a positive spin on it for us in terms
of returns, but the counter argument is that our costs are Dollar
based so it is a short term gain.
What we actually prefer is a steady
Rand but that is not what we have
at the moment and with local government elections coming up at the
beginning of August I think it will
remain volatile," said Roelf.
For more information:
Tru-Cape
Tel: +27 21 850-1800
Email: [email protected]
www.Tru-Cape.com
Acknowledgement:
Author: Nichola Watson Publication
date: 6/24/2016:
www.freshplaza.com