Elrita Venter and Jan Hoon
“Bringing emerging crops to new markets certainly has its challenges,” noted Elrita Venter of Freshness First, “but we can take some pain out of that process because we've worked on this before.” Though certainly not easy, the company, which is an association of growers from mainly the Western Cape area, has had experience pushing lesser-known commodities into new markets and into greater public consciousness. Persimmons and Pomegranates are the two smaller items the company has worked the most to promote, and the progress has been steady.
“Each commodity has its own industry association that amongst other enabling activities, also focus on market access to specific markets where exports could do well,” explained Elrita. “The industry associations are currently pursuing market access for persimmons and pomegranates in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Japan, China etc. and we are at different stages of the process in all of those markets.” They started working on persimmons before pomegranates, so that work is further advanced. But with both items, access to new markets can be a time consuming process and will depend on exchange of scientifically based technical information and eventual bilateral negotiations between the SA Dept of Agriculture and the other country’s authorities.
“Bilateral export agreements could eventually, depending on the phytosanitary risk involved, also include strict mitigation requirements. “We got access to the U.S. market a few years ago for our persimmons on the condition that the fruit had to be irradiated. In addition to the technical assessments, we should also remember that our fruit have a specific priority in the importing country as well and exporting to for instance, South Africa might need to open itself to Chinese shipments of fruit in order for us to ship our fruit there.”
“Persimmons are quite popular in China, it in fact originated there, so we believe there's huge potential for our persimmons as the market window would be available during the heart of our persimmon season,” noted Elrita. Sometimes it's also a matter of prepping a market one can already access. Pomegranates, for instance, are already well-known in the Middle East, where Freshness First already sells stonefruit, but this country would need some promotion work before buyers there took to persimmons.
This is all on top of the need to produce fruit that's up to export standards as well as grow enough of it at that level to supply new markets. The early pomegranate varieties that Freshness First handles have especially soft skin, handling procedures and packing protocols need to be adjusted in order to successfully export the fruit without encountering quality issues upon arrival. The payoff, if that's successfully done, is that there's more early fruit available to sell when the Israeli season ends and the Northern Hemisphere is open for South African fruit.
Right now, the company ships about 2500 tons of pomegranates every year which is grown on various farms. This figure could increase in the future, especially if growers are able to consolidate. Elrita noted that it will become easier to maintain uniform fruit quality as the experience and knowledge of farmers increase in the future. If global demand for South African pomegranates grows, then the supply of pomegranates could come from more producers with large swaths of land. But expansion, even when there's demand for an item, brings its own challenges.
Franschhoek Marketing is also a citrus exporter and according to marketing manager, Jan Hoon, “There's a huge market for lemons right now, but it's not as simple as cutting out other crops and making way for lemons. There's still land available in areas such as the Eastern Cape that has good soil and access to water, but you have to take into account whether the climate would spur the presence of black spot, which is a potential problem with citrus here.” Production costs vary by region, but, in general, the costs growers bear are high. Growers can see returns of around six percent of the sale price of their wares, and that's another factor in the consolidation of the agricultural industry because large growers can better take advantage of economies of scale.
Stonefruit tried and true
On the more popular stonefruit items it carries, Freshness First prefers a strategy that focuses on tried and true local varieties. While its efforts with smaller items shows its not afraid of new things, the company is also aware that the best course of action, especially when it comes to stonefruit, is to rely on what has worked well in the past.
“Though we work with local developers of new stonefruit varieties, we also stick to the flagship varieties that are proven to do well in this area rather than try new flavors of the month,” said Jan. While there's the temptation to acquire the rights to the newest variety in the market in hopes of capitalizing on the latest buzz out there, it's not a simple process to add a new item. A grower must first determine if the variety can be grown successfully in South Africa, then there are trials that must be carried out and quarantine and other regulations that must be met before production is undertaken. The entire process could take years.
“It's nice to have something new on the shelf, but there will always be something new,” said Jan. “But if you can work with local developers and manipulate storage so you have good coverage throughout the season, then you can stick with flagship varieties with stonefruit.”
For more information:
E
lrita VenterFreshness Furst
Tel: +27 21 876 3140
Email: elrita@freshnessfirst.co.za
www.freshnessfirst.co.za