South African exporters Colors Fruit and Core Fruit have decided to settle a legal dispute that has hung over them since a group of former executives at Colors left the company to join Core back in 2010.
In a joint media release issued by Colors Fruit managing director Riaan van Wyk and Nico van Staden, his counterpart at Core Fruit, confirmed that legal proceedings would no longer be going ahead and had been settled out of court.
They added that while competition was healthy for the fruit industry, it needed to be handled in a responsible manner to protect the long-term investments made by producers and retailers.
'We are happy to engage in healthy competition to the advantage of the industry, with our producers and customers always coming first,' the statement said.
The two companies have apparently resolved their differences, which had formed the basis of pending arbitration proceedings that were due to start in August.
'The matter was resolved on terms acceptable to both parties and will put an end to further litigation between them,' the directors added.
'We are pleased that we could show this kind of leadership which resulted in two of South Africa's fruit marketing companies resolving their disputes amicably.'
Both parties expressed their commitment to serving the best interests of the South African fruit industry as a whole and said they looked forward to doing so to the best of their abilities.
The companies declined to give further details of the settlement, saying they preferred to concentrate on future opportunities to build their respective businesses.
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