South African grower and exporter Freshgold are known as the African people as most of their export goes to the African countries, uniquely the company is much less focussed on traditional markets.
Freshgold has been supplying Africa for 16 years and have representation in 20 countries, the company supplies mainly topfruit, citrus and grapes.
"There has been tremendous growth in the African market in recent years and it has become a very important part of the South African topfruit market, in fact two years ago Africa surpassed the UK as the top export destination for apples, possibly not a fair comparison as Africa is a huge continent compared to the UK, but the UK has always been traditionally the biggest market for South Africa," explains Pieter von Maltitz, Manager Director of FreshGold.
The different African countries vary hugely in the varieties they demand, for example with grapes Red Globe is the favourite for West African and for East Africa it is Crimson, you can't sell one box of Red Globe in East Africa. As for apples almost 75% of the Golden Delicious went to Africa last year, 10 years ago 75% went the UK.
"What we see in Africa this year is the energy based economies are under pressure, Angola, Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea are definitely under pressure which we are feeling in the sales, but Africa is a big continent and in East Africa there is phenomenal growth, Kenya for example has grown 12% year on year there, they are building new roads and infrastructure and improving communications."
Von Maltitz admits that Africa is not an easy market, the cold storage and facilities can be a challenge, especially in land locked countries, "This is why Freshgold have been investing there for years, putting money into infrastructure in countries such as Ghana. We know it is very important, it is not like Europe where everything is there. If we can control the logistics in a subtropical environment of products which need to be at 0 degrees then I believe we will have an advantage."
Freshgold use these facilities year round as they do their best to supply customers 12 months of the year, with a Spanish office and also imports from Italy, Chile, Egypt and Morocco, amongst others.
Von Maltitz is sure that Africa will remain a strong market, even those oil based economies which are suffering just now will be back, same for countries such as Russia and Malaysia who have seen their currencies seriously devalued, The Ghuanian Cedi devalued around 40% over the past year.
"This means our clients selling our fruit in Ghana need to get 40% more to pay us the same, so it is easy to see why we are shipping less there this year, we are also adapting prices etc. but they will be back and the currency will recover," assures von Maltitz.
Years ago branding was not important in Africa, but that has changed in recent years. There, everything is sold by the carton or by the piece, you get 3 for 10 cedi, or 4 for 10 cedi, it is always for 10 so if the fruit is more expensive you get less for your 10 cedi. Freshgold sells the majority of their fruit under their own brand.
The South African topfruit harvest is just getting underway with Royal Gala and Golden Delicious. It is no secret that the country is facing a tough time for fruit production due to the heat and drought.
There has been a lot of planting in recent years, also in topfruit, the estimate for this season show that apples will be 2% more and the pear 3% less, but it will actually be 20% less, however, the new plantings are keeping the numbers up
"The drought and extraordinary heat will be challenging, not just for this season but it will also influence next year. Fruit sizes will be small, but this is what the African market likes. It is very likely that other exporters will try to enter the African market this season but it is not that easy, you need to have the financial arrangements in place, repatriation of funds is also a challenge as well as the logistics."
Von Maltitz is also very concerned about the citrus season. There are three main growing areas, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. "In Limpopo, depending on the variety there will be between 30-35% less, some varieties such as Delta Seedless may be as much as 90% down, but Star Ruby will only be around 20% down. Each variety reacts differently to the ground conditions it is quite amazing to see the difference. Soft citrus should have a steady season as there is a lot of new planting, but on oranges the expectations are quite a lot less, according to von Maltitz.
Even if there was good rainfall at this point it would not make a huge difference to volumes as the fruit set is done, sizes might go up by one but most importantly it would certainly help the trees for next year.
The African market is a passion for von Maltitz and 45% of all units produced and procured by Freshgold go to Africa.
"Africa will continue to be a big importer especially for top fruit, it now takes 30% of South African apple export."
