© Delecta FruitThe suspense is over: the first South African stonefruit have arrived in China, with Delecta opening the field with late cultivar yellow and white flesh nectarines.
"When we got word that the final approval had been signed and South Africa could now officially send stonefruit to China, we made the call in partnership with our client in China that the biggest opportunity lay with the following week's packing of nectarines," says Erietha Pieters, stonefruit category manager at the grower-exporter.
"We had just the right quality accompanied by the right eating quality and fruit sizing. Chile is in its peak with exports to China, especially on plums and sugar prunes, so we decided we could have the biggest impact with nectarines."
She continues: "The nectarine season is now nearing its end, unfortunately, and quality-wise we don't judge it wise to send another shipment of later nectarine types, particularly given the large amount of rain that the nectarine production areas received over this past weekend."
In September last year a team from Delecta visited China, where they are established pomefruit and citrus suppliers. They wanted to form an idea of what the market is looking for in stonefruit, she says, and they established that there are definite opportunities for nectarines, plums, sugar prunes and peaches.
© Delecta Fruit
China has high potential for South African plums, they believe, and a container by seafreight is still pencilled in for this season. "China already receives many of the varieties that we grow from Chile, so we know we've got the varieties that the market wants and knows. How big an opportunity there will be, will eventually be determined by our earnings, but with the right eating quality and shelf life, there should be space for a steady volume to China."
At the moment, most stonefruit is delivered for wholesale, but they are in talks with Chinese retailers to plan ahead for next year's stonefruit season. By that time, last week's agreement that South Africa will enjoy zero-tariff treatment on all export tariff lines to China will hopefully be in place.
China, which is a strong market like the United States, is a welcome addition to trading partners. Regardless of the 30% tariff placed on U.S. imports of South African stonefruit, Delecta will continue supplying that market with plums.
"It's important for South Africa to protect its market share, otherwise it could be another ten years before another opportunity in the USA for our plums comes again. It is also important," she remarks, "that we safeguard our revenues from potential oversupply to, among others, the European market by sending plums to other markets, such as the United States and now China as well."
© Delecta Fruit Local receiver Neil Wang with the team from Delecta Fruit: Awie de Jager, JD Moller and Erietha Pieters
For more information:
Erietha Pieters
Delecta
Tel: +27 21 860 3999
Email: [email protected]
https://www.delecta.co.za/
