South Africa: Apple exports to increase by 4.4%
Jacques Du Preez, Product Manager for Top and Stone Fruit at Hortgro Services said: “Growers are predicting apple exports year to date (YTD) to be up by 6% compared to the previous season, which is a great start to 2012. The quality and quantity of this year’s top fruit will be very good”.
South African growers are coordinating a European campaign to boost recognition and sales of top fruit across the UK and Germany. This year will be the third successive year that top fruit sales in the countries have been supported by the ‘Beautiful country, beautiful fruit’ campaign.
Activity during the season will highlight South African apples and pears to British shoppers from April through to September. This will include a range of activities in supermarket stores, including tasting sessions, with information and recipes given away in addition to fruit samples, on-pack competitions and offers, as well as advertising at the point-of-sale and on retailers’ websites. The German promotion will work closely with the main retailers and include in-store promotions, supermarket tastings, leaflets and magazine promotions.
Du Preez added: “The initiative is about highlighting the great quality fruit basket our country offers when it’s at its most delicious, as well as the benefits of buying South African fruit, from the point of view of freshness and eating ethically. After two successful years of promotion in the UK, we’re hoping to see similar results in Germany. Coordinating both campaigns gives us a consistent message of quality and season of South African fruit as well as bringing economies of scale to the process”.