Domestic fruit market to get quality control standards

TWO identical-looking sacks
of oranges: one contains
perfect, delicious fruit, the
other is sour. To protect the
consumer from having to
gamble each time a citrus
purchase is made, citrus
growers met last week in
preparation for a standards
meeting for domestic fruit
set for 6 November with the
Department of Agriculture.
“Typically the export
market is very discerning.
Inspections are both external
– skin blemishes and so on –
and internal, for acidity and
sweetness. We are in initial
discussions to implement
standards for the domestic
market,” said John Edmonds,
information manager for the
Citrus Growers’ Association
(CGA) in Durban.
One idea mooted was
to label qualifying citrus as
“choice,” which would be
of equivalent quality to a
Class 2 export fruit. Another
suggestion was to classify
fruit quality numerically.
“For consumers it’s
what’s inside that is the
big unknown. This is about
consumer protection,” said
Edmonds, who said any
proposal must be ratified but
the result would be citrus
quality assurance for buyers.
Consumers could either
purchase inspected
and labelled fruit, or
unlabelled fruit and take
their chances.
One bone of contention
is the cost of inspection
for growers might make
the local market even less
attractive.
“The export market
effectively subsidizes the
domestic market. Growers
are making little in local
sales and if it is even less
profitable they might
decide simply to dump their
product,” said Edmonds.
Added Justin Chadwick,
CEO for the citrus growers:
“As it stands at the moment
exporters would rather
export even if it gives
a small margin, as local
market returns are so poor.
It can be argued that one
of the reasons for the poor
local market returns is the
variable (and sometimes
downright poor) quality that
we put onto the market. I
believe we should embrace
the revision of local market
standards, and make them
work in the best interests
of the grower and
the consumer.”