India, Singapore, Malaysia and Bangladesh are still major market in the production of South African apples and pears. Eon Smit, director of commercial operations of Fruitworks located in Paarl states, “Asia Fruit Logistica is an event where three businesses get together, to have a chat and visit our existing customers in person. We’d like to hear about what’s happening with their company. as well as to build our relationships with each other personally. This isn’t the right place for discussions about big projects. We believe that the relationship and the people element is essential for us to interact with the people. For a better understanding of the current trends in their markets and businesses. It’s not a search for any new businesses at the show for this reason, however each year, there are interesting possibilities that are revealed.”

Fruitworks is a company with offices. There are separate businesses located situated in Singapore known as Crownfruit Pte Ltd, and in Malaysia they also have Rainbow Fruit. “Fruitworks is a company that has been operating for 23 years which focuses specifically on South East Asia. In the past five or eight years we’ve increased our presence in the subcontinent together with Bangladesh, India and also the Middle-East. We are primarily focused on exporting apple and pears to South Africa. We also deal in citrus, and later table grapes. We deliver blueberries, figs and strawberries through airfreight. We’re very involved with apple and pear production, so that we have the ability to offer good quality to both our customers as well as the growers.”

By operating in two Asian countries, they supply their customers with the fruits all year long. “Our office located in Singapore are focused on the products of all over the world that they can bring the countries and regions to these. Also, they produce South African fruit that other exporters from this region supply to them. They additionally purchase from across the globe. It includes fruits that comes from Egypt as well as Spain as well as apple from Turkey, Poland, France and Italy among others. These countries are the ones they source from to ensure that they have enough all throughout the year. We are able to do what we want and perform it with excellence and concentrate on the details of our work.”

Fruitworks has no major concentration on China and has Singapore and Malaysia being their primary markets for apple and pears. “In Singapore their preference is to purchase Packhams and in the different countries of Asia the preference is Forelle or Vermont Beauty. There’s an enormous and high demand for Packhams. However, it’s growing difficult to improve the level of quality within South Africa that they have an interest in, since they’re looking for more appealing and healthier apples.”

The current political turmoil in Bangladesh has had an adverse impact on the market for imported fruit. “The numerous changes of policies and duties have had significant impact on the price paid for the fruit on the market. The violence that occurred the last month have caused a negative impact on exports. Fruit took much longer to get out of the port. They could not persuade people to distribute the fruit.”

Smit claims that prices on the Indian market is prone to fluctuation as well. “India is a highly unpredictable market. It can be affected by volume as well as the time of supply. When demand is at its peak, and it can become weak. It’s still a big market in South Africa, but it isn’t an easy nation to comprehend the culture and their culture. In the past eight years, we have made an enormous effort to understand this market, individuals and the systems.”

Through years of hard work from the fruit industry in South Africa, the steri-protocol for landing fruits in India is now more fruit-friendly. “It’s simpler now to deliver fruits to India but there’s of competition, too. India has more than 1000 importers but about 150 of them are actually involved in the industry of fruits and are geared towards it,” Smit says. Smit.

He claims Malaysia was once an importer of large quantities of goods, but that has changed since covid. Covid pandemic. “Malaysia was hit hard by Covid. It isn’t as strong like they were prior to Covid which is evident by the lesser volumes import. It is possible to see growth in this sector, but it’s likely to appear different than it was. It is clear that the larger companies are growing and there are fewer new importers. This market is more cautious in purchasing than previously. This is more a push approach than withdrawal out of the market. It is, however, a stable market, which continues to be important to South Africa, especially on the Granny’s apples and other red varieties of apples,” concluding Smit.

Fruitworks exhibits in Asia Fruit Logistica. Their booth is in Hall 3 and stand 3B34.

For further information, click here.

Eon Smit

Fruitworks

Tel: +27 21 872 8327

[email protected]

www.fruitworks.co.za

www.crownfruit.sg