South African exporters Colors Fruit and Core Fruit have agreed to settle their long-running dispute out of court in order to focus on the future.
The dispute was over a group of former executives of Colors Fruit leaving the company in 2010 to join Core Fruit.
In a joint media release issued on behalf of Riaan van Wyk, managing director of Colors Fruit, and Nico van Staden, managing director of Core Fruit, the two companies say that while competition is healthy for the fruit industry, it needs to be handled in a responsible manner to protect the long-term investment made by producers and retailers.
They said: “We are happy to engage in healthy competition to the advantage of the industry, with our producers and customers always coming first.”
According to the statement, the two companies have resolved the disputes between them that were the subject of pending arbitration proceedings due to start in August 2012. It read: “The matter was resolved on terms acceptable to both parties and will put an end to further litigation between them.”
Both parties have expressed their commitment to serving the best interests of the South African fruit industry as a whole and look forward to continue doing so to the best of their abilities.
“We are pleased that we could show this kind of leadership which resulted in two South Africa’s fruit marketing companies resolving their disputes amicably,” the managing directors said in the statement.
Both parties declined to give further details of the settlement, emphasising they would rather concentrate on future opportunities to build their business.
No comments yet