South African citrus export estimates revealed that the industry would continue to see steady growth across most citrus varietals, with an estimated 4 percent growth in exports across these categories, the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA) said yesterday.
Justin Chadwick, CGA’s chief executive, said this was good news for the South Africa economy in light of the local industry sustaining 120 000 jobs and bringing in R30 billion in export revenue last year alone.
“However, several challenges facing the sector include soaring input costs (including fuel and fertiliser price hikes) and a major increase in freight rates, red tape hampering access to some overseas markets, as well as ongoing operational challenges at the country’s ports, continue to threaten the profitability and future sustainability of growers,” Chadwick said.
The CGA said in order for the industry to continue on the upward trajectory it has enjoyed over the past few years, the government and stakeholders across the value chain needed to work together to improve the operational capacity and efficiency at the country’s ports and to secure, maintain, and retain as many market access opportunities as possible.
According to the organisation, key markets that offer major potential for expanded access and required particular attention during the upcoming export season kicking off later this month, were the US and India.
This was the only way the growers would be able to offset increasing input costs that were squeezing their profit margins and for the industry to remain competitive, particularly considering local production was expected to grow by another 300 000 tons over the next two years, it said.
The current prediction for lemons was that 32.3 million (15kg) cartons would be exported to key markets, which was an increase of 1.3 million cartons when compared to last year. A 1.5 million increase in (15kg) cartons of navels was expected, with 28.7 million cartons likely to be exported in total. An estimated 58.2 million (15kg) cartons of valencias was predicted to be exported this year, a 3.2 million increase.
BUSINESS REPORT