The starting gates have flung open, and there’s no shortage of potential Chinese buyers looking for South Africa’s stonefruit.
The first two consignments of sugar plums (an old South African prune cultivar by the name of Van der Merwe) sent by Icon Fruit timeously arrived in Shanghai and Guangzhou in the run-up to Chinese New Year to a warm reception.
Flavorfall harvest dovetails with resumption of trading after Chinese New Year
The ten-day lull in Chinese trading as people go back home for the Chinese New Year suits the local stonefruit calendar very well. The harvest of Flavorfall plums, Icon Fruit’s largest single category and 15% of the local plum industry, will start in two weeks, nicely coinciding with the resumption of trading.
Niche stonefruit specialist Icon Fruit gainfully used their time while waiting for the final approval, sending their Year of the Horse-branded cartons to Hong Kong in the meantime. They had initially hoped to send another of their specialties, cherry plums, to China – in the end, the final approval came too late – because, even though the taste is very different, like sugar plums (prunes), it is a small fruit, easily portable in a handbag or backpack.
“The younger generation is very health-conscious, not that the older generation is not, but we find that younger consumers are always on the go, very mobile, and a small fruit like a cherry plum or a sugar plum fits into that lifestyle as a healthy, easy-to-eat snack,” says Wynand Hanekom, commercial logistics coordinator. “After the first week, clients in China started asking whether we could send some their way. We weren’t able to, at that stage, but we gained many advantages from the exposure. That was a positive spinoff from the long wait.”
Flavorfall plums, Icon Fruit’s single biggest category
Chinese access heralds new era for South African prunes
It is significant that they have decided to send prunes. “Over the past few years there haven’t been much in the way of new prune blocks planted in South Africa,” says Stefan du Plessis, Icon Fruit director. “The market for prunes was very local, and it was dwindling. Now with these new markets, it has picked up because the Chinese import a lot of fresh prunes, in the region of 8 million cartons from Chile alone. Their prunes, or sugar plums, are very similar to ours.”
Farmers are excited to be able to plant with a market in mind, and they expect prunes to be one of the winners following the opening of China for South Africa.
Source : Freshplaza.com
