Bureaucratic ineptitude is one of the reasons why the exports of South African grapes, apples and pears are in danger of being locked-out of several international export markets, according to one leading exporter.
As reported in an article in the South African finance weekly, Tru-Cape managing director Charles Hughes has blamed South Africa’s lack of progress in regaining access to Thailand and finishing of the import deal into China for apples and pears on ‘bureaucratic inertia’ on the side of the government.
'This (losing access into Thailand) was government inefficiency at its best and has cost South Africa at least R400m (€39.5m) in lost export revenue,' Hughes is quoted as saying.
He told the Financial Mail that Thailand had stopped accepting apple and grape exports in January 2008 after the South African government failed to update phytosanitary information on the sector timeously. Since then, all South Africa’s efforts to regain access for apples and grapes, including lodging a ‘trade concern’ at the World Trade Organisation last October, have failed to pay off.
Hughes said that South Africa has also been unable to finalise access for apples to the vast Chinese market, despite Chinese approval of South Africa’s production and phytosanitary certification process. He pointed to the fact that apple producers from New Zealand, Chile, France, Belgium and North America all export to China.
A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) is reported to have said that talks were at an advanced stage and, after technical discussions in Beijing last month, China has undertaken to provide a written response to South Africa’s request for access.
The Financial Mail reported that part of the problem was that 16 post at director level and above in the DAFF are vacant or have acting incumbents. This includes posts that are central to securing the country's export access. Furthermore, DAFF’s director general, Langa Zita, has been suspended for administrative reasons.
South Africa has also lost entry through the port of Jakarta in Indonesia, Hughes continued, while its main competitors are still allowed to use the port. South Africa now has to use secondary ports which lack crucial infrastructure.
He warned that a lock-out is also looming in India, which wants imported fruit to be treated with methyl bromide. He warned that this may result in another WTO war because exporters contend the process will ‘kill’ the fruit.
While it is correct to say that South Africa has lost its access to Thailand and has been unable to reopen this market, China is not completely closed to the country's apple exporters, while grape exporters have had legal entry for some time. Significant volumes of apples are entering China through the gray channel, which is a very expensive because of the amounts of money that has to change hands to make this happen. Many grape exporters also still use the gray channel rather than the tougher ‘direct’ route with is phytosanitory requirements.
The Indian problem does not only affect South Africa, but all importing countries and can hardly be blamed on the South African government. Despite South Africa being part of the BRICS block of countries, along with India, it has been severely criticised for not placing the fresh produce industry high on the agenda in its negotiations within BRICS.
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