Co-ordinated marketing pays off

DISSECTING THE season that was, Citrus SA CEO Gerrit Booyens says Valencia oranges provided an "exceptional" crop, possibly the best in the last four or five years as 24 million cartons found their way to the UK and EU countries. Almost 11 million cartons of Navels were exported, 9,5 million cartons of grapefruit, just over 5 million cartons of lemons and around 4 million cartons of soft citrus. "Internationally it was a very difficult season as opposed to last year when there were hardly any carry-forward stocks in the market. "Whereas the markets in Japan and Europe were empty last year we encountered six to seven weeks of supply in Japan, particularly grapefruit, and only carry-forward stocks in Europe but an exceptional summer crop." In Europe the Marsh (white) grapefruit came under severe pressure. While Citrus SA has yet to establish the reason, it would appear that consumer preference is tending toward the Ruby (pink) variety. The extremely discerning Japanese market, which takes up some 33% of all South Africa"s grapefruit exports, seems to have had a predilection for the Marsh variety, but Booyens says this assumption is also under pressure and that the previous 60/40 split in favour of Marsh will probably have to be reviewed. Great successes were achieved in co-ordinating the marketing activities of the citrus industry through the citrus marketing forum where Citrus SA tracked and discussed international resistance levels, what should be going where and how often. The large number of export agents in the country has always been a bone of contention but Booyens avers that in the case of citrus a "natural attrition" is taking place - numbers are down from 241 three seasons ago to 108 this year. "One of the problems is the definition of an exporter and the proliferation of export agents would be as dangerous as fragmenting one's supply. That the producer is the principal and the exporter the agent should not be at all compromised "