"The Thai and Indonesian markets are looking promising. We will have a verification visit in January 2015 from the Thai authorities and I hope that soon after that this vital market will be an open market for us," explains Bestbier. "I also recently visited Indonesia which is also looking very promising."
The African market is shaping up well says Bestbier, this is a bit more difficult at the moment for grapes due to the coldchain not being developed enough yet, but some of the retail groups have opened stores there and he expects significant growth.
"This is an exiting development for us, to service our own continent. It has not been known as a sophisticated market in the past but there are many wealthy markets there and populations who are very fond of fruit," states Bestbier.
China, on the other hand is a big market but the shipment protocols for South African grapes are difficult, explains Bestbier,"The quality of the fruit on arrival in China is often not what we want it to be. This is due to the stringent protocols, for example shipment at very cold temperatures which dries out stems and causes the berries to de-colourize. We would like to negotiate the protocol which we think is too strict, it is an over reaction of the psytosanitary risks. We believe that we have very reliable science to prove that shorter cold treatment is enough, this is already happening from other countries."
For more information:
Willem Bestbier
SATI
Tel: +27 21 863 0366
Email: willem@satgi.co.za
www.satgi.com