South Africa: Colors Fruit expanding their niche product range
Papayas have underpinned the Colors Fruit assortment since they began exporting 15 years ago. In partnership with their associate company, Neofresh, Colors Fruit is able to offer year-round supply of papayas from South Africa. A new cultivar, ‘Selection 42’, offers fragrant flavour, high sugar levels, firm flesh and a long shelf-life. Papayas are a rather sensitive product to transport and as a result, are transported mainly by air freight. Sea freight over long distances has proven to be difficult to get right for papaya, but Colors Fruit has begun experimental sea-freight shipments to the United Kingdom and continental Europe under the guidance of ExperiCo, a leading post-harvest research company in South Africa. A breakthrough on sea freight would lower costs significantly, meaning lower retail prices, better returns to growers and reduced energy consumption too. Neofresh is excited about their new papaya varieties which are in an advanced stage of evaluation. These varieties are the result of Neofresh’s breeding programme, led by the renowned Dr Aart Louw.
Litchis are also grown by Neofresh, in the sub-tropical lowlands of the north eastern part of the country. The bulk of the harvest consists mainly of ‘Wai Chee’ and ‘Mauritius’ varieties, but new varieties (such as ‘Third Month Red’, ‘Fai Zee Sui’, ‘Selection 1’ and ‘Maguli’) are being planted in order that they may extend the season. This will enable Colors Fruit to supply their international customers with litchis from late October through to the end of March. In the Southern hemisphere, Colors Fruit has exclusive access to Redlych technology, a sulphur-free treatment that extends shelf-life and preserves colour. This enables access to sulphur-free markets such as the US, Canada and other niche markets.
Colors Fruit has been supplying South African figs to overseas markets for the past five years. All fruit comes from the Western Cape region and is exported via air freight. Available from January to April, the main varieties are ‘Parisian’ and ‘Tangier’ (black figs) and a unique baby fig ‘Ronde de Bordeaux’. Colors Fruit is breeding new fig varieties which are ideally suited to South African conditions and these are expected to lengthen the season by at least two months.
Keith Wilson leads this project as well as the search for new, superior varieties of pomegranates. The focus is on varieties with large arils, softer seeds and improved flavour. An exciting range of pomegranates, known as the ‘Russian Reds’, were gathered from the Trans Caucasus region of the old Soviet Union and tested under South African conditions. These form the basis of new plantings and the first small batches of fruit should be shipped during the 2013 season.
What’s next for the Colors basket? The search is on for the best-tasting dragon fruit, passion fruit varieties and a few other products which are currently being evaluated under South African conditions, but the company is tight-lipped about exactly where or when these will be launched. The selection and development of new cultivars underpins the Colors Fruit strategy to provide unique, sought-after products to the market and provide a point of differentiation to a grower that will enhance both profitability and sustainability of his/her business.
For more information:
Liezel Kriegler
Colors Fruit
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +27 82 373 4773