Despite lower South African apple and pear volumes, leading exporter Tru-Cape is still expecting solid revenue from this year’s export crop.
Roelf Pienaar, managing director of Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, said that demand remains good and in line with what was predicted at the start of the season.
“Although it was expected, we are substantially down on last year,' he said. 'This is mainly true for apples due to the challenging weather conditions that we have seen in the Cape over the last few years.'
He added that recent currency volatility is also challenging: “Our foreign exchange policy is to hedge ourselves against the fluctuation in global exchanges rates,' Pienaar noted. 'We don’t necessarily want to profit from changes in global currencies and what we need is a stable currency, rather than just a weak one. However, to address the exchange rate risk, we do hedge and try and to take a longer term view on markets and exchange rates.”
Pienaar said that despite the reduced crop as a result of the severe drought in the Western Cape, Tru-Cape’s role is to add value to their grower shareholders.
“We have to balance our customer demands with realised supply. Over the years we have established a strong reputation as a reliable supplier and it is important that we maintain our focus on customer delivery and continue to supply quality product.”
While the company has had its supply challenges this season, Tru-Cape has remained focused on the end customer, according to Pienaar.
“We also realise that there is always room for improvement. This year, the focus was to not only consolidate our position in various markets but to also build our presence in key destinations with certain varieties.
“Currently, via our grower shareholders, Tru-Cape has access to more than 7,000ha on farms in Ceres and the Elgin/Grabouw/Villiersdorp/Vyeboom valleys,' he explained. 'As Tru-Cape sources from such a wide climatic area this enables us to meet demand from our global customer base, even in years with climatic challenges. That said, this past season our growers have had to manage the challenging impact of drought and of hail.”
Africa, both the local and export markets, remains exciting for Tru-Cape and is a key part of the company’s marketing footprint.
“We are selling almost 50 per cent of our total volume on the African continent and there are various opportunities about which we are excited and on which we are building,' Pienaar added. 'We also continue to export to the rest of world which includes the UK, Europe, Middle and Far East. In the end we have to market the total crop, and we need various markets to do so.”
