"When travelling abroad, I've never seen any dried fruit that I would consider buying," says De Wet Burger of Kambrosig, a marketer of dried fruit based in Wellington, Western Cape. "Being accustomed to the standard of dried fruit we produce in South Africa, both in terms of eating quality and appearance, I believe it is unrivalled in the world."
Kambrosig is among the smaller of South Africa's dried fruit suppliers, with never more than a week's supply of packed and ready-to-send dried fruit as well as dried fruit sweets, the latter a uniquely South African delicacy which, he remarks, he's never seen anywhere else.
"We keep the product as fresh as possible before sending it out to clients. We keep the dried fruit in our cold room and package it weekly. Of the dried fruit sweets, we make a fresh batch every week."
A core group of stonefruit and pomefruit farmers grow and dry the fruit for Kambrosig, mostly out in the sun, which is the cheapest way of doing it. Apples and peeled peaches are dried in tunnels.
Constrained apricot supply for drying
Sulphur dioxide preserves the colour of the dried fruit because, he says, people buy with their eyes. "It's easy to dry fruit without using sulphur dioxide, and it'll keep well, but after two months the colour will darken to an unappealing shade. We get very few enquiries for fruit dried without sulphur dioxide, though. If we get 50 kilograms' enquiries in a year, that's a lot."
An important avenue for Kambrosig, in order to make use of the entire crop, is the 2,500 tonnes of apricot and peach kernels that they dry every year. The dried kernels are primarily used for oils and cosmetics, but also for the production of marzipan.
Exports reduce the amount of apricots available for drying
The highest demand is for dried prunes, while dried apricots are becoming a scarce product as South African apricot exports increase.
"It has become difficult to get sufficient apricot volumes for drying, especially so during the past season. We have just sold out our very last dried apricots. I was talking to one of our supplying apricot farmers, and he said he was only able to supply his clients with 20% to 30% of their fresh apricot orders." Many hectares of apricots succumbed to the drought around Laingsburg, Ladysmith, and Montagu, Burger explains, and the prices for dried fruit can't compete with export returns. Drying costs have increased, and the average fruit farmer doesn't want to dry anymore, he observes.
The demand remains undimmed, as retailers and middlemen well know, selling the product at prices far above the cost price.
Peach & pear supplies more stable
Peach and pear supply for the drying sector is more stable, and the benefit of these types of fruit, as compared to traditional apricot varieties, is that their harvesting window only comes after the New Year holiday.
Especially for choice grade dried pears, there is no better variety than Bon Chretiens (Williams), Burger says. Packhams are too large, the peel easily discolours, and Packhams have a lower sugar content than BCs. Blush pears are not used for drying at all.
The snowy white dried apple rings sold by Kambrosig are made from Granny Smith apples. "Consumers buy with their eyes, which is why we don't use Pink Lady for drying: its quality is good, but it's a little bit more brown, more than South African consumers expect."
Nectarines dry beautifully, he remarks, but the harvest is mostly exported fresh or sold locally (it cannot be used for juicing because of the peel).
Dried fruit sweets, a South African delicacy
For more information:
De Wet Burger
Kambrosig
Tel: +27 21 873 2861
Email: [email protected]
https://kambrosig.co.za/