All of South Africa's perishable exports are inspected by an agency the likes of which has no equal in the world in terms of its operational scope, says Lucien Jansen, CEO of the Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB).
"Not all countries have an inspection body, and in those that do, their agencies are not the same as South Africa in that they usually only offer quality or phytosanitary inspections. No other inspection body offers cold chain services as well as inspection and food safety services as the PPECB does."
Travelling 5.26 million kilometres last year, criss-crossing the country between packhouses, refrigerated trucks and cold stores, 644 PPECB assessors and inspectors conduct inspections and assessments based on prescribed quality standards. "For certain markets, there are additional inspections required. Regarding exports to the EU, the PPECB is recognised as an approved third country by the European Commission Regulation 543 of 2011. This agreement recognises the South African inspection systems as equivalent to those of EU inspection bodies and therefore ensures less frequent checks at the port of import into the EU."
During the 2024/2025 financial year, the certification desk processed 285,787 export certificates representing over 360 million cartons and 330 million kilograms of perishable products (excluding meat) which, he remarks, is an increase of 23% compared to the previous year.
"The increase may have been due to increased volumes. Although volumes were less than the budget, there was still a year-on-year increase. It could also be due to requests for individual export certificates per container, instead of a bulk application which comprises more than one container per certificate, a decision simply based on client preference."
More than 15,000 precooling certificates were also issued during the same period.
"The PPECB's laboratory in Centurion, Pretoria, conducts mycotoxin analysis on groundnuts for the export industry, fats analysis, dairy testing, and maximum residue level (MRL) testing of pesticides in a myriad of matrices (grain, feed, fruit, vegetables, cereals, peanut butter, spices)."
Growing the pool of export-ready producers
The PPECB is not only active on the external end of perishable exports, but on the training and development end as well. Training in a certification scheme, the South African Good Agricultural Practices, was provided to 839 smallholder farmers, while 134 small-scale producers of raisins, rooibos, vegetables, nuts, and fruit were certified as export-ready.
At least twice a year, PPECB top management convenes with the parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture to answer members' questions on, among other matters, the growth of South Africa's fruit exports, the challenges experienced, and the status quo of market access.
At these meetings, the PPECB shares information on its operational activities, its finances and developmental programmes, such as its assistance to smallholder farmers. As part of the PPECB's export readiness and market access programme, it assists such farmers to produce a business plan and provides them with coaching over a three-year period.
Furthermore, as part of its Agri-Export Technologist Programme, eligible graduates are placed in a year's internship programme for a national certificate in perishable produce export technology.
51% increase in electronic export certificates
The PPECB launched its mobile technology project, TITAN®, in 2014 to eliminate all manual processes during inspections. "In the previous financial year, 343 million cartons (95%) of all fruit products were inspected on TITAN 2.0®. Furthermore, 110,961 electronic export certificates were processed on the TITAN 2.0® platform. This represents a 51% increase compared to the previous financial year. The PPECB TITAN 2.0 platform now also provides clients with a fully electronic, signed and stamped PDF consignment report."
The development of export notification, container inspection, and container loading modules on this platform has been a focus over the past year, and within three months of the launch of the container inspection module a year ago, all container depots nationwide were successfully onboarded and inspected via TITAN 2.0® , Jansen says.
For more information:
Tina-Louise Rabie
Perishable Products Export Control Board
Tel: +27 21 930 1134
https://ppecb.com/