Representative body the South African Table Grape Industry (SATI) has issued a media release to address confusion surrounding regulations governing fresh produce access to Thailand.
In the media release SATI points out that while Thailand granted access to South African citrus in May the Asian nation has not allowed imports of other categories, such as table grapes, apples, pears and stone fruit.
South Africa lost access for these categories in 2008 when Thailand reworked its import regulations.
“Currently there is a general degree of confusion as many stakeholders seem to think that South Africa is now able to export freely to Thailand,” the press release stated.
This, however, is not the case and South African industry bodies are continuing their push to have Thailand issue import regulations for the categories that lost access in 2008.
“The South African deciduous fruit industry wish to impress upon the Thai authorities to allow South Africa without further delay to resume its historic export in these commodities which, at the time if the imposition of the ban, had a value of some US$6.7m,” the release continued.
