‘Dangers lie in the South Americas’ Gerrit Booyens - information and knowledge key to successful exports. Ray Smuts NO NEED to wait for the jury to return with its verdict; Gerrit Booyens, chief executive of Citrus SA, is able to pronounce 2003 as an excellent season but warns that amassing knowledge and information are key to maintaining a competitive edge. As the third largest exporter of citrus in the world (after Spain and the US) and the dominant southern hemisphere exporter, the pragmatic Booyens is all too keenly aware of the role information technology must play in order for South Africa to maintain its position as a preferred fruit supplier. “From a southern hemisphere perspective the dangers lie in the South Americas, starting with Argentina, and the only way to counter that is through quality, reliability and consistency of supply.” Booyens believes South Africa needs to leverage its position with regard to its traditional markets - the UK, Europe and the Middle East - while on the other hand developing access to other markets like south- east Asia and, in the main, China. Despite initial concerns that the season might prove questionable in terms of smaller fruit, this has proved unfounded and with some ten weeks to go before its end, Booyens is able to place on it a stamp of excellence. “Soft citrus (easy peelers) was excellent and we are not yet sure in the case of grapefruit, navels and Valencias but we are looking at 3,5 million (15kg) cartons of soft citrus, just under 10 million cartons of grapefruit, about 12 million cartons of navels, some five million cartons of lemons and probably around 34 million cartons of Valencias, for a total of 64 million cartons.” Though these volumes are much the same in pallet terms as the previous season, a somewhat different market distribution has been noted; more grapefruit and lemons to Japan, for example. Booyens avers that the start of the season was almost intimidated by the rand but excellent prices were realised for grapefruit in northern Europe; what is more, healthy pricing, in Europe specifically, has far more than compensated for the loss in foreign exchange. “I think we are finally seeing that the value now manifesting itself is really an impact of the information sharing between parties, a better understanding of market intelligence, risk management and matching supply with demand.” Information systems have advanced considerably since Citrus SA came into being two years ago but there is still a long way to go even though there is a growing realisation in the industry that order and discipline stem from knowledge of the market. “The key issue is to empower producers with information and systems that will enable them to track their product down the line in order to manage their risk, issues traditionally handled by intermediaries.” Booyens asserts a “huge challenge” ahead lies in bringing producer and end retailer/consumer closer together so that each understands the other’s requirements while other demands include compliance with EU-defined export measures two years down the line, refining the logistics chain and meeting the ongoing challenge of satisfying client demands in an ever-changing competitive market.
