The South African produce industry has its hurdles, from a recent 52% rise in the minimum wage to stricter standards in Europe, but Fresh Produce Exporters' Forum (FPEF) CEO Anton Kruger sees many positives for the future. He tells www.freshfruitportal.com about how the industry can gain from public-private partnerships in infrastructure development, the government's National Development Plan 2030, and growing opportunities within in the African continent.

Wage increases, energy costs and transport costs were common themes for exporting countries during the recent Southern Hemisphere Association of Fresh Fruit Exporters (SHAFFE) meeting in Berlin, according to Kruger.

"This is linked to the fact that we do not always see the returns that we want for the product at the end of the day, so we need to ensure that we provide consistent good quality fruit," he told www.freshfruitportal.com during Fruit Logistica.

Anton Kruger

"With the unfortunate incidents in South Africa in the recent past with the strikes that were disruptive to a certain sector of the industry in certain regions, we think we've recovered - the important thing is to keep communication with our importers and customers.

"Also, we have to ensure that we have our government formal structures constantly evolved on the technical level with their counterparts in Europe; in principle we would like to have a scientific justification for the rules and regulations to ensure that the basis for such decisions are correct, and those decisions are based on science."

The U.K. and the European continent continue to be South Africa's main markets, but Kruger highlights growth in Russia, the Middle East and the Far East where conditions are sometimes easier to trade in on a technical level.

"It's also interesting from South Africa's side in the apple industry, that a quarter of South Africa's export apples went into Africa this year. There is a lot of potential in Africa itself and that's where we are ideally positioned.

"I think there are a lot of new developments that can take place in the African market for South African fresh produce."

He says the apples go by ship to the West African country of Benin as a port of entry, and likely move on to larger countries such as Nigeria and Ghana.

He adds these countries are unlikely to import subtropical fruits from South Africa that they can grow, but there are possibilities for more Mediterranean fruits that can't be grown close to the equator, depending on the fruit type and how well cold chains are developed.

Infrastructure development

When asked whether investment was underway to improve these cold chains in West African countries, he said it was "in some instances".

"What we see throughout most of these countries is the public-private partnership approach, to build a railway line for instance between a port and a production site, with multinational companies getting involved.

"We see it that way in South Africa too, and from our side we need to work very closely with the government in the private-public partnership approach."

Kruger is optimistic about Transnet's plans to revamp the old Durban airport into a seaport at an estimated cost of ZAR75 billion (US$8.4 billion) with the first phase scheduled for 2016.

"It's a longer term process but that will alleviate a lot of the congestion there," Kruger says.

"We are also looking at railway lines to get fruit down to Cape Town harbor from up north, if you can have trains with refrigerated containers.

"We are constantly engaging with Transnet freight rail – they need the commitment of certain volumes, so we need to give the commitment from the exporter side."

He says the Cape Town harbor can handle perishables quite well and has a good level of capacity, although strong southeasterly winds can sometimes make it difficult to load, which was the case a few weeks ago and set back exports a little bit.

In terms of a broader pitcture, Kruger encourages the South African industry to get involved with the government's National Development Plan 2030, making sure that it ties in with the outlined objectives.

"It’s a very comprehensive plan and agriculture is very prominent in there as is research - it's for job creation, job retention, and for growth of the entire economy of South Africa," he says.

"We need to see where can add growth in the entire value chain - is it on land reform? Is it getting more emerging farmers and assisting them? We can help people become exporters with training programs.

"Postharvest research is also important for a competitive advantage to have good quality fruit on arrival."

www.freshfruitportal.com