The South African stone fruit industry is launching a new UK campaign in January aimed at both increasing visibility of its products to consumers and restoring trade confidence in the country as a primary Southern hemisphere source.
Wide-ranging in-store activity over the coming months will ensure South African stone fruit stands out on shelf, with a particular focus on encouraging purchase of ripe-and-ready ranges in secondary retailers as well as primary.
Industry body Hortgro’s overall goal is to position South Africa as the most sustainable southern hemisphere stone fruit supplier, highlight the exceptional taste credentials of the products, and restore trade confidence in South Africa as a reliable, high-quality primary source.
Consumer activity includes on-pack labels across Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Costco stores, featuring a competition to win a two-week holiday to South Africa. There will also be social media activity on LinkedIn, influencer collaboration and consumer PR with three bespoke recipes created by leading South African chef Reuben Riffel that will appear in HELLO! Magazine in March 2024.
The campaign also aims to underline why the trade should view South Africa as its preferred supplier of stone fruit. For the new season, growers report good production conditions, with ideal levels of rainfall and sunshine leading to exceptional crop taste and colour.
The quality of the fruit adds to a compelling social and environmental case for South Africa as a top supplier. “We have an extensive value chain and give work to more than 68,000 people, who have an additional 273,000 dependents that rely on our industry,” explained Jacques du Preez, general manager of trade and market at Hortgro. “Our fruit is sustainably produced, and we subscribe to strict auditing standards such as SIZA, GlobalGAP and others.”
To deepen understanding of South African production standards, a trade press trip is taking place in January 2024, giving producers the opportunity to highlight their world-class orchards and packhouses, sustainability and social work, as well as the different varieties and exceptional taste credentials of their fruit.
In 2022, South Africa exported a total of some 3.4m cartons of nectarines, 2.4m cartons of plums and 795,000 cartons of peaches to the UK. Early season estimates are for a 18% increase in nectarines, with peach and plum volumes set to remain relatively stable.
At the production level, nectarine volumes have increased substantially, with the 2,776ha planted in 2022 representing a 20% increase on the previous year. Plum volumes have remained relatively stable at 5,465ha despite industry consolidation and poor returns to growers over the past two seasons. Peach production is down 214ha year on year at 5,281ha.
For more information:
Georgia Marshall
Tel: +44 1480 465953
Georgia@redcomm.co.uk