South African citrus farmers should take advantage of the recent success of the 15th Brics summit in South Africa and explore the market opportunities of the six additional members with preferential trade arrangements.
That’s according to senior agricultural economist, Paul Makube, commenting on the citrus export situation this year.
“The addition of Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA) offer the latter preferential trade arrangement possibilities with the new members,” he said.
Referring to current exports, Makube said: “Citrus exports have so far been good with 127.1 million cartons shipped as of week 34 of the 2023 export season relative to 120.7 million cartons in 2022.
“Stringent European regulations on safety, in particular citrus black spot and the false codling moth, continue to limit growth in exports which saw the Citrus Growers’ Association lowering its estimate from the initial 165.6 million cartons to 157.2 million cartons as of 1st September 2023.
“This reflects tough trading conditions,” Makube said.
John Hudson, Nedbank's head of agriculture said, despite the market difficulties and a tough operating environment, South African agricultural exports remained robust in the second quarter of this year.
He said this was good news and demonstrated the sector's resilience despite the challenges faced on many fronts. Source: FreshPlaza
