The UK is traditionally the largest receiver of South African soft citrus and has been the destination for 70 per cent of South African satsumas this year.
The principal soft-citrus production regions have been harvesting since March and by week 21 (end of May) they are expected to peak, before beginning to tail off in week 30.
“The Eastern and Western Cape production regions have seen a delay in production, which is good news from a market perspective as our supply period will be extended longer than usual,” says John Morgan, citrus manager for Colors Fruit South Africa. “Our exports of soft citrus to the UK have been increasing each year and as the market does not seem to be oversupplied at present, we hope to continue with this trend for the current season.”
He adds that the closer levels of co-operation within the South African citrus industry this year have been beneficial in ensuring that only the best fruit has been exported.
Adriaan Smuts, managing director of the South African export company Cape Citrus said that its export season has progressed well without many problems. “Although we were not able to fill all the programmes we had hoped to due to a shortage of supply, we have been able to return good prices to our growers.
Martin Dunnett, commercial director for Capespan UK, said the satusma season has started slowly, but as market demand had not been particularly strong, this was a satisfactory situation. The clementine season, he adds, has just started, and the first fruit has been of excellent quality with good colour, but slightly lacking in acidity. “We are expecting a normal season, even though fruit sizes are a little smaller this year. There is a limited market for the small sizes, but it is important that exporters do not ship excessive volumes of small fruit,” he says.
It is generally expected that the total volumes of soft citrus out of South Africa will be lower this year as climatic conditions have resulted in a higher percentage of small fruit that falls below the specifications for export.
Although the UK is the traditional market for South African easy peelers, market space for soft citrus has developed in the US, the Middle East and Far East over recent years and exporters are sending increasing volumes of fruit to these markets as well.
The navel harvest has also started and although Europe and the UK are the traditional markets for South African oranges, at present many South African exporters are sending the bulk of their fruit to the Middle East and Far East, as the UK and European markets are oversupplied with fruit from other sources.
Morgan says that the quality of the navel crop is looking good this year and the sizes are more within the popular size ranges, not as large as last year. “Our first navels are due to arrive next week and indications are that the quality is good but that the volumes for the UK will be down against last year,” says Dunnett, who adds that the first South African lemons have arrived and are of excellent quality. “Although there are considerable volumes of lemons from other origins in the UK market at present, the quality of South African lemons appeals to the quality conscious UK consumers and should find a good place in the market”, he says.
The South African grapefruit production season has started one to two weeks late this year due to late rains in the northern parts of South Africa and there is a shortage of Marsh grapefruit in the UK and European markets at present. The Star Ruby harvest has just started and at present most of this fruit is destined for the Japanese market, which traditionally receives up to 40 per cent of South African grapefruit.
“We are expecting our first shipments of grapefruit form South Africa next week and the market is currently strong due to the early finish of the Turkish grapefruit. Over the past five years, the UK has proved to be a very reliable market for grapefruit, provided the suppliers ship the specifications that the market requires,” Dunnett concludes.
MARKETING CONTROL ASSISTS CITRUS FOCUS
South African growers have high hopes of healthy returns from the 2006 citrus harvest, following the voluntary implementation of a new monitoring system for the various varieties and markets.
The steady growth of citrus export volumes from South Africa over the past few years has made international marketing increasingly challenging and poor returns received by growers in 2005 provided the impetus for growers to take proactive interest in the management and marketing of their producers.
“Since the end of last season growers have decided to take more control of the marketing of their fruit and have created variety focus groups,” explains Justin Chadwick, ceo of the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa. “The members of these groups have been elected by growers to represent them in order to continuously monitor market and variety issues. These groups liaise with the Citrus Marketing Forum and this is proving to be a very valuable tool for the industry as the season progresses,” he says.
“This is one of the best things that has happened in our citrus industry in a long time,” says Chris Chance, director of the grapefruit programme for Japan and Europe. “We are continuously monitoring South African packing and shipping figures to prevent many of the oversupply problems we encountered last year.”
SUPPLIERS CO-OPERATE TO REACH COMMON GOALS
The South African citrus marketing programme is benefiting from co-operation between southern hemisphere citrus producing countries.
The countries co-operating in this information sharing are Peru, Chile, Argentina, Australia, Uruguay and South Africa.
Although southern hemisphere citrus producers face stiff competition from each other on international markets, developments during the last year have seen an unprecedented level of co-operation between these countries on the sharing of production and marketing information.
“It makes sense for all of us to co-operate on this level, as knowing what the competition is doing and monitoring the flow of product to various markets can prevent us from oversupplying certain markets,” says Justin Chadwick.
“We are still experiencing some teething problems with this, but in general it has already proved to be a most useful initiative.
“The co-operation of SHAFFE (Southern Hemisphere Association of Fresh Fruit Exporters) on this is starting to show dividends and is well run by chairman Ronald Bown [of the Chilean Exporters’ Association],” says Stuart Symington, ceo of the South African Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum.
SOUTH AFRICAN CITRUS ACADEMY DEVELOPS TRAINING MATERIAL
The political changes in South Africa during the last decade have led to an increased level of involvement in the citrus industry by previously disadvantaged individuals through Black Economic Empowerment and land redistribution initiatives. In many cases people require development of basic literacy, technical and business management skills to enable them to establish sustainable and profitable farming enterprises.
This has been the impetus for the establishment of the South African Citrus Academy by CGA, the official South African Grower organisation, and the citrus academy has just completed the development of a series of textbooks and learning material to answer this need.
This is the first time that a specific production sector of the South African fresh produce industry has developed a set of formal learning material.
“This learning material will be of use to any students involved in citrus production internationally and will be available on our website in the next few weeks” says Jacomien De Klerk, manger of the South African citrus academy.
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