Last week SHAFFE held its very first annual Southern Hemisphere event.
The third part of FreshPlaza's coverage of the event reports on the panel discussion with industry experts from the key Southern Hemisphere exporting countries. The session was mediated by SHAFFE Secretary General, Ms Nelli Hajdu, on the panel were:
• Argentina: Federico Baya, Argentinian Blueberry Committee
• Australia: David Daniels / Nathan Hancock, Citrus Australia
• Brazil: Luiz Eduardo Raffaelli, Abrafrutas
• Chile: Ignacio Caballero Toretti, Director Marketing, Chilean Fruit Exporters Association (ASOEX)
• New Zealand: Alan Pollard, CEO, NZ Apple and Pears
• Peru: Ricardo Polis, ProCitrus Peru
• South Africa: Dr. Ferdi Mayer, Agricultural Bureau South Africa
• Uruguay: Carlos Maria Fraschini, President of Uruguayan Union of Producers & Exporters of Fruits.
Internal development
Ignacio Caballero Toretti - Chile: The biggest challenge was water as drought has impacted fruit production and has had an impact on planting. New regions were being looked at for new planting.
Cherry production is a great opportunity and its biggest growth area with volumes increasing six fold in the last 10 years. But they need to diversify the markets and become less concentrated in China - investment in this has already started. India has a good potential but is challenging.
Ricardo Polis - Peru: Water, infrastructure and the political situation with an election due in April. Water itself was not a problem as there is enough, but getting it to growing regions means investment in major projects. Projects were underway but had been stopped due to corruption. The situation is the same for developments of highways and ports.
The private sector in Peru is involved R&D and has had success in the development of grape and blueberry production. Citrus is also expanding. There are trials taking place in the Andes were the climate is different and may open new windows for export.
Nathan Hancock - Australia: In Australia mergers and acquisitions are changing the industry. Big companies are buying up small and medium ones to spread the risk by producing in different regions and increase acreage. While this increases production it means a reduction in citrus certain varieties, the investment is in more profitable export varieties and there is more investment in packing equipment. There is more confidence in the markets allowing growers to move forward. Although water may limit expansion, there has been a period of rain but it comes after a long drought period.
Varieties grown have shifted with the target markets, as Australia expands into Asia and China.
Carlos Maria Fraschini - Uruguay: The country is a small supplier of citrus and needs to consolidate itself as a reliable partner and focus on the competitiveness of local growers. New varieties need to be introduced and there is local varietal development taking place. The country enjoys a disease fee environment with no citrus greening. Market accessibility needs be improved.
Luiz Eduardo Raffaelli - Brazil: Brazil has a huge domestic market for citrus and only export 2.5% of production and are relatively new to the export markets. Phytosanitary agreements need to be made to increase exports.
Alan Pollard - New Zealand: New Zealand is now at its peak apple harvest and the biggest challenge to growers is a sever shortage of labour. The NZ government has focussed on protecting the population against COVID, but this has resulted in a lack of foreign workers being allowed into the country, normally 14,000 workers would come from the Pacific Islands, but there are only 6000, backpacker numbers are also way down and unemployment is down as the NZ economy is very strong. This has resulted in the export forecast being reduced by 14%.
New Zealand has access to a safe, reliable food source and has a big demand for its produce. The climate is moderate and the country is disease free with great R&D.
Dr. Ferdi Mayer - South Africa: Labour is also a problem in South Africa but for different reasons, they have an abundance of labour but movement of people has been severely restricted due the pandemic. The country has seen record production of almost all fruit but there are huge challenges in getting it out of the ports. Infrastructure also needs investment, much of the produce in moved by truck, and more rail possibilities are needed. The country will also see a significant increase in volumes in the coming years and needs to find more markets which could be aided by government and private sector cooperation.
Federico Baya - Argentina: The pandemic saw a growth of demand but also an increase in costs. Packing became more expensive as more shifts were needed and the cost of transporting workers increased. Argentina was in the lemon and pears seasons. The cherry and blueberry were affected as they rely on air freight to get the markets.
There are challenges which big corporations can help with bu the roll of the government is important and increased fruit production can offer a solution to unemployment in the county.