“Two years ago we celebrated going above one million tonnes of citrus production,” said Citrus Growers’ Association ceo Justin Chadwick at last week’s Southern Hemisphere Congress, in Santiago. “The next celebration will be when we go back below 1m cartons.”
He was responding to questions surrounding the difficulties growers around the world are facing with overproduction and subsequent low prices. Chadwick said that after massive expansion, above all in the citrus sector (15 million to 75m cartons in five years) in the post-deregulation years, growers are now weighing up the risks behind financial commitments in their future.
“We are in a fairly unique situation [in fruit industry terms] with the political issues we face,” he said. “South Africa’s fruit industry is awaiting the outcome of its government’s black economic empowerment and land claims programmes before making serious investment in new plantings. Particularly in the northern parts of South Africa, growers are unwilling to invest until they know what will happen to the land. The only new plantings are in the south and from some multinational companies looking to invest back down the supply chain.”
Since deregulation, growers have suffered from decisions made by “export agents who invariably were not the risk-takers”, Chadwick said, and found themselves marginalised and far removed from the decision-making process, but the last 18 months has seen a recognition that working together on a voluntary rather than regulated basis, is crucial.
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