Arguably the single event that brings together most people working in Southern Africa's fresh produce industry, the annual International Fresh Produce Association's Southern Africa conference was the first since South Africa's momentous 2024 elections which had delivered real political change in the form of the first government of national unity in almost a century.
Click here for the photo report from the trade show.
Many conference attendees confirmed they were there to listen to what the Group CEO of Transnet had to say, and Ms Michelle Phillips' presentation on the bread-and-butter issues daily tackled by her and her Transnet colleagues (some of whom also attended) did not disappoint. But, as one exporter put it, "to get back to where we were, there's still a mountain to climb. The problem is there are not enough services coming to Cape Town. And that's not something I thought I'd say fifteen, twenty years ago because shipping lines wanted to come to Cape Town. Now the problem in Cape Town is the lack of choices."
Click here for the photo report from the trade show.
Frost, flooding & juicing diminish citrus available for exports
Another oft-mentioned theme in the conversations among IFPA 2024 delegates was the unpredictability of weather bedevilling farm planning and causing damage on a previously unprecedented scale, as witnessed by Citrusdal whose main town bridge has been washed away for the second time in two years.
Many attendees from the Western Cape were looking forward to the end of winter – towns like Ceres and Grabouw had well over 500mm just during the month of July, and the province's water appears secure for the upcoming season.
Around Marble Hall, in Limpopo Province, unusually acute frost a month ago wiped out citrus harvests on some farms halfway through, resulting in losses of tens of thousands of export cartons.
Exporters say they're having a tough time finding enough oranges for export, while the juice price is so high and tempts many producers away from the higher risks of exporting - but it could come at a cost to market share. They are surprised at the amount of the Egyptian oranges still available in the Indian market.
"Prices for citrus in China are amazing, but that won't last long because there's no volume," says an export. "We're struggling to persuade our suppliers to go for it, they would've made good money now."
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"Unreal" prices for vegetables
The result of erratic weather is directly palpable on the market floor: the price of a 5kg box of green peppers shot up two weeks ago to about R220 (11 euros) from an average of R40 to R50 (2.5 euro) due to frosts.
"We are seeing such high prices in the market it's unreal, and it's actually sad because customers are ordering less and less. We're moving less and less volume and more and more are being exported, with less coming into South African homes," remarked a fresh produce distributor within South Africa, remarking that a pocket of South African oranges sells for ten times the local price in a market like Canada. "We're struggling to get product into our local retailers at a decent price."
Click here for the photo report from the trade show.
For more information:
International Fresh Produce Association
https://www.freshproduce.com