With four seasons of both grapes and citrus done and dusted since inception in 2010/11, Capespan Egypt is looking to significantly expand over the next five years.
Export manager Khaled Dawoud confirmed that the company has plans to drive more market development outside of Europe to compliment the wider group’s existing involvement from Egypt and to offer growers maximum exposure to the new opportunities opening up in Africa, the Middle East and Far East.
“Egypt is a long-term sustainable export origin for these fruits and many other fresh produce items. Together with our brands they make a compelling offer to our clients.”
Selling into 22 mostly non-European markets, Capespan Egypt’s grower base has been working with each of Capespan’s European offices for some time. Capespan brands Outspan, Goldland and Sunchoice for citrus, as well as Cape for grapes and strawberries are major assets. Dawoud said that from marketing generic brands in the early years of Capespan’s presence in Egypt, 95 per cent of all Capespan Egypt’s exports are now branded. “Clients prefer the branded products because it gives them a strategic advantage.”
Plans are afoot to sell citrus into South Africa as from next year. Other target markets for the 2015 citrus season include China, Canada and the Middle East. This should boost citrus sales by 20 per cent, according to Dawoud.
He continued, “Already, Capespan Egypt supplies seedless grapes to South Africa and a number of Middle East and Asian markets. But great strides have been made in expanding our grape markets to include new South East Asia markets through our Metspan office in Hong Kong, as well as Kenya, Angola and Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa.
Dawoud said the other potential on the horizon was to develop the import market for Capespan Egypt. “We plan on importing Cape-branded nectarines, plums and grapes. And we’re also targeting Europe, Russia, South East Asia, the UK and Middle East for our strawberry exports. In 2013, we exported strawberries to some Gulf Markets and the product had a first-class reception.”
Capespan Egypt offers its growers a tremendous amount of technical help and guidance and has built this reputation for more than ten years. A measure of its success is that exports have more than tripled since inception. Within 2 years we want to reach well over 500 containers as Capespan Egypt exports.
According to Dawoud, Capespan Egypt enjoys much support from its customers in the various markets, ticking all the boxes for superior product, meeting food safety requirements, cost-effective freight solutions, timeous delivery and year-round activity.
