The United States is set to
import more South African
citrus following high-level
meetings in Cape Town last
week.
Krysta Harden, US deputy
secretary of agriculture,
met with stakeholders of the
country’s citrus industry in
the Mother City last week
while in the country to attend
and address the PMA Fresh
Connections Southern Africa
Conference.
“We have to open up more
markets for farmers across
the world,” she said. “We have
met and spoken to the South
African industry and are
happy to say that they will be
sending high-quality products
from South Africa to the
States.”
While she did not provide
any detail or indicate the
volumes involved, Harden said
the agreement would by no
means displace US growers,
but in fact complement what
they had in the US already.
“South African producers
will export to the US at a time
when we are not producing our
own citrus. They will have to
meet all the standards against
which US producers are
measured.”
South African citrus
producers have been hard at
work finding new markets for
produce in light of an ongoing
debate over Citrus Black Spot
(CBS) with their biggest market
– the European Union. Earlier
this year the country stopped
all exports to Spain due to CBS.
Citrus exports to markets
such as the Far East and Russia
have also been on the increase.
INSERT
South African
producers will export
to the US at a time
when we are not
producing our own
citrus.
– Krysta Harden
CAPTION
Krysta Harden, US deputy secretary of agriculture
