New markets, BEE key to growing SA citrus industry

● Strengthening ties with traditional export partners also crucial in achieving 10-year goals, Didiza says

Exploring new markets and expanding existing partnerships will be among the key factors in the SA citrus industry achieving its goal of exporting 260-million cartons of citrus annually by 2033.

Speaking at the Citrus Growers’ Association’s Summit in Nelson Mandela Bay recently, agriculture, land reform and rural development minister Thoko Didiza said strengthening ties with traditional export markets, as well as exploring trade with the rest of Africa, could provide good platforms en route to achieving the industry’s 10-year goals.

Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA) chief executive Justin Chadwick first spoke about Vision 260 last year, saying the project would be discussed further at the Citrus Summit, which brought hundreds of role players across the citrus value chain together last week.

And though resolutions to some of these discussions have yet to be announced, Didiza believes some of the answers lie in existing and new export markets, and the development of BEE in the industry.

“Obviously, this mission cannot be achieved if government and industry do not share a co-operative and supportive relationship.

“That is why the Agriculture & Agroprocessing Master Plan was established — to bring about collaboration between government, business, labour and civil society.”

Didiza said in the past three months her department and the National Agriculture Marketing Council had set aside resources and developed a programme management unit to oversee the implementation of the master plan.

Part of this implementation included development and transformation of the citrus industry. Working closely with the CGA Grower Development Chamber, mainly in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, the department hopes to realise its goal for 2050 — to have 19% of citrus produced and exported come from black farmers.

Didiza said she was not oblivious to the challenges the industry faced in recent months, such as the increasing costs of production, transport and shipping, while contending with load-shedding and “technically unjustified regulations” for cold storage imposed by the EU.

“Despite all this, citrus remains one of the high performers in terms of export growth with an expected 143-million cartons of fruit to be exported in the current year.

“I can assure you that every effort is being made to ensure fair and consistent access to the EU market.

“Over the past few months, we have used every technical and political opportunity to voice our concern over the paralysing impact of these regulations to the authorities and we will continue to do so,” Didiza said.

The AU’s Continental Free Trade Agreement, which aims to boost trade and investment across the continent, also provided unique opportunities to expand economic growth.

Didiza committed to supporting the citrus industry’s expansion into African markets, provided it can table a detailed road map on how it aims to effectively break into these markets.

Chadwick said more than 600 delegates attended the three-day summit last week, including industry experts, economists and government officials.

Detailed accounts of all the presentations and discussions would soon be available on the CGA website.