Exporting is an obvious extension of any marketing firm for fruit located in South Africa, and so it was the case for Proudly Produce founded in 2017initially for local retail, later gradually moving to international trading.
Right: Peaches are currently being packed to be used to Proudly Produce
Proudly Produce is part owned through the Timberlea Farming Trust, a group consisting of ten farms ranging located from Villiersdorp towards the south and the Koue Bokkeveld. The farms in the Trust offer Proudly Produce with about 45% of the volume it trades while the remaining is procured from outside.
“Every week we bring in 15 different kinds of fruits ranging from strawberries and blueberries all the way to Brussels sprouts depending on what clients want,” says Gustav Claassen director of the Stellenbosch’s Proudly Produce office.
The soft citrus that is grown by the Trust’s farms are delivered to both local as well as international supermarket programs.
A good stonefruit crop however, harvesting can be stress-inducing
The new season of apples begins in just two weeks on farms located in Mpumalanga and in the Free State, with Golden Delicious and Royal Gala being the first to be available varieties. Apples form the basis of trade in fruit across Africa and are facilitated through daily ‘fruit-friendly’ transportation choices that can take around 18 to 20 days, as well as the trade overland that extends as far as Malawi as well as Tanzania. “Apples are the gateway for trade. It’s then crucial to provide the customer with an assortment of goods that include grapes. Grapes are now involved. There’s a lot of work with grapes both across East as well as West Africa, particularly on the red grapes.”
Proudly Produce provides with the Indian Ocean Islands with an assortment of fruits. Like African nations, Claassen remarks, it began with apples and pear that was followed by the need for grapes and berries.
Stonefruit is another major area of the business. One of the most renowned cultivators of nectarine in South Africa supplies them and the majority of their produce is going to the United Kingdom, a traditional location of South African stonefruit. “It’s been an average season with a healthy harvest and enthusiastic customers with the UK who have received our products,” he says. “However this is an extremely stressful time as we continuously keep track of the weather conditions, not just for packing and picking as well as for loading into ports.”
The author continues: “There are wonderful opportunities for nectarines to be grown in the United States, and I hope that the cold-treatment protocol is eventually relaxed similar to the situation of India where volume of trade grew.”
Over the last year they’ve received numerous enquiries about plums coming by them from their African counterparts. Therefore, they plan to be focusing on Africa as well as the Islands by leveraging the abundance of plums from South Africa and supporting a large class 2 programme.”
Asia is calling!
“We offer the whole assortment of pears starting from Bon Chretien to Forelle. We’ll ship peaches to India and India, in particular Packham as well as Forelle. There is a lot of excitement regarding South African Forelle.”
There’s no shortage of demand from Indian purchasers. “It will help if you discuss your favorite team in the Indian Premier League [cricket] or mention your favorite Bollywood film!”
Today, China provides a second option for the South African pear marketer. “The pear industry desperately needed an air of freshness from India as well as China. Asia is an area which we’d like to expand our reach. I believe there are tremendously great opportunities, and not just for pears however, but apples too. This has now become an essential component of our plans for the apples.”
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Gustav Claassen
The Proudly Produced HTML0
Tel: +27 84 333 3454
Email: [email protected]
https://www.proudlyproduce.co.za
Source: The Plantations International Agroforestry Group of Companies