Some 60 years before HM Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the thrown, fruit growers in the far-off Cape Colony at the southern point of Africa started their trading relationship with British fruit traders and the British people.
In 1892, the middle of the British winter, those growers delivered 14 trays of peaches at Old Covent Garden market. Industry leader Percy Molteno, and John X Merriman - at the time treasurer-general of the Cape Colony - later described the moment as the cases were opened: “With great delight, we saw case upon case being opened in splendid condition.”
That was the first time British consumers saw ‘summer fruits’ in their winter and one can clearly imagine the consternation these ‘peaches of legend’ caused. Grapes soon followed and that started off a special and long relationship between South African fruit growers and the British trade, one that got new impetus after World War II and after Queen Elizabeth II succeeded King George V.
For those first 60 years South Africa’s fruit export market was pretty much Britain and Britain alone. Britain is today still one of South Africa’s most important markets, with relationships as strong as ever, and it is fair to say that South Africa is recognised as Britain’s most consistent and reliable fresh produce trading partner.
One of South Africa’s award-winning writers, Siegfried Stander, who recorded the history of South African fruit exports in the book Tree of Life, once described the peculiar quality of fruit farmers as a democratic, independent breed of people, masters of their own estates and their fates - servant to no man. He said that no-one illustrated this better than a man by the name of George King, a fruit grower from Paarl, who during a particularly good quality year in the 1930s, decided to send some of his grapes to King George V.
The grapes arrived soundly and the message simply read: “To King George of Buckingham Palace from George King of Paarl.”
Another anecdote recalls that during a tour by the Springbok rugby players they were invited to Buckingham Palace to be introduced to King George V. During the ceremony one of the burly locks was given the opportunity to cut a few berries from a good bunch of Barlinka grapes from the Hex River Valley. The lock, a grape grower himself and used to picking big bunches on his own farm, startled the Palace staff by taking the whole bunch off the silver plate and started to eat it all.
One can conclude that over the years much of the best of South Africa’s fruit has ended up and been enjoyed on the tables of Buckingham Palace. More significantly, however, is the fact that during the second 60 years, the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the fresh produce trade between South Africa and Britain showed phenomenal growth. It has seen the development of two of the best-known fresh produce brands in the world, namely Cape and Outspan.
It has seen the move from regulation to deregulation, innovation and development, new cultivars and products. Through it all the relationships have endured, from the days when annual independent retailer trips to South Africa saw hundreds of retailers visiting the country to see the fruit and meet the growers, to today’s high-powered retail delegations travelling south to fill their shelves. -
