Local not quite as ‘lekker’ as exports

Perishable export boss explains why RAY SMUTS PETULANCE WAS prevalent over Cape radio air waves last week as callers-in expressed disquiet at having to settle for second best in the fruit quality stakes while South Africa’s premier export basket, apples for one, continues ending up in the marketplaces of the world. To his credit, the show host patiently explained it was surely a grower/exporter’s prerogative to sell product in those countries where prices are most favourable but this rationale seemed not to appease one consumer, who termed the state of affairs a ‘rip-off’. To which Stuart Symington, CEO of the Fresh Produce Exporter’s Forum, has a simple answer: If South Africans are prepared to pay the same prices for their exports as do foreigners, one would probably find the ‘best apples’ remaining in the country for consumption. He makes the point that the rand has historically been very much weaker than other hard currencies, making exporting permanently attractive. “But times are a-changing and with the relentless strengthening of the rand, exporting is becoming marginal for quite a lot of fresh fruit exports from South Africa.” Symington explains that, unlike a number of other varieties, one of the attractions of selling apples overseas is that controlled atmosphere storage allows a producer to safely keep his product for up to ten months in some cases. “He can then release apples from storage to opportunistically service short-supplied markets where prices are usually more favourable than in over-supplied markets. “Most other fruits cannot do this and have to be sold relatively soon after they have been picked, regardless of the prices in the market to which they have been shipped.”