Fruit News
The country has doubled its shipments to the US and is poised to sell more than 1,000 tonnes at home for the first time
South Africa’s Sharon fruit industry has apparently achieved further growth both abroad and at home this season, most notably in North America and its own domestic market.
With all of this year’s export fruit now dispatched, the country’s Sharon fruit marketing campaign is set to continue in major international markets until the end of July.
And, despite the harvest being more at least at the same level as last year in terms of volume, fruit quality and pack-outs have reportedly been better this season, driving domestic and international sales.
Arisa, the central packing facility for South African sharon fruit located near Swellendam in the Southern Cape, is understood to have received around 7,000 tonnes of the fruit this time around.
As a result, just short of 250 containers, or 4,000 tonnes, of the fruit packed at Arisa were shipped from Cape Town to destinations around the world. “We doubled our shipments to the US this season,” said Hein Smal, spokesman for leading marketer Mor International in South Africa.
International increases
Gary Tuzzo, who represents MOR International in the US, confirmed there had been good demand for the South African fruit, with the local trade welcoming the extension of sales of the product in the US.
“Sharon Fruit from South Africa was even sold in one of America’s craziest stores,” Tozzo revealed, referring to a new listing at Jungle Jim’s International Market, a specialist supermarket in Fairfield, Ohio, referred to as a foodies’ theme park.
“It’s a place where the first rule is to treat customers like gold,” he explained. “The second is to have fun doing it. People come from several states away for the unique shopping experience Jungle Jim’s International Market offers.
“There is a wide selection of food from all over the world, red-hot deals and, of course, lots of fun. Sharon fruit totally fitted the profile and customers had fun trying them.”
As a fairly new product, Sharon fruit certainly made in-roads in the international and local trade this year. Smal said arrivals in Canada were also well received and shipments to the Far East grew once again this year. “We also had success with arrivals in Africa, with Kenya being the most noticeable.”
However, Europe and the UK continued to be the most important sales region for Sharon fruit from South Africa. “Consumers like our product and we had a solid campaign,” Smal noted.
Home comfort
But it is in South Africa where sales of the fruit have shown the most dramatic growth this season. “This is driven by high level sales and promotional campaigns in the wholesale market sector,” Smal commented.
“We are continuing our excellent partnership with RSA Market Agents and we had major success with market and informal sector promotions. This is the most vibrant sector of our economy and we have seen our sales increase dramatically this season.”
With another month of sales to go in South Africa, there is confidence that more than 1,000 tonnes will be sold in the local market for the first time in one season. “At this stage we are running 300 tonnes ahead of last year and we are very pleased with progress.”
The South African Sharon Fruit season is a relatively short one, from April to July. “Our success this year again prove that South African consumers are looking for new eating experiences and at every one of our promotions we saw great interest into tasting the fruit and then buying it,” Smal concluded. “Thereafter we recorded repeat buys which is important for future growth.”
Until this Thai-sourced product launched, shoppers could only buy mature brown coconuts in UK supermarket aisles
Asda has launched ‘young coconuts’ into stores nationwide, receiving backing from one of the stars of ITV’s The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) in the process.
Until now, shoppers could only buy mature brown coconuts in UK supermarket aisles, but Asda’s younger model is hot off the heels of the the thirst for coconut water drinks.
Dubbed ‘nature’s Lucozade’ the young coconuts can reportedly help you rehydrate post-workout due to their isotopic properties: a property that TOWIE’s Ferne McCann took to Twitter to eulogise about to her 606,000 followers.
Unlike some pre-packaged coconut waters, Asda’s young coconuts have no added sugar, no additives, and no preservatives or artificial colours, sweeteners or other added nasties.
Supplied from growers in Thailand, the outer green flesh of the young coconut shell is shaved down for easy handling, and all shoppers have to do is chop off the top at home and stick in a straw.
Young coconuts differ from the more mature, brown and hairy coconuts we’re used to seeing on shelves as the insides are made of coconut water and a jelly-like flesh – the older they get, the darker the outer shell becomes and the inside of the coconut turns to hard white flesh with no water at all.
Fresh produce manager at Asda, Charlie Mills, said: “As Brits become increasingly interested in natural, clean hydration with no added extras we felt we needed to go right to the source and give shoppers the purest from of coconut water we can.
“Bottled versions are great for people on the go, but if you’re after coconut water in its purest form then an Asda young coconut is the nuts.”
A shipment of the fruit has been rejected in the Netherlands due to the presence of fruit fly
An airfreighted consignment of mangoes from Pakistan has been turned away in Amsterdam after the presence of fruit fly was discovered by inspectors.
The rejection of the mangoes marks the first time this season that any volumes of the fruit from Pakistan has been rejected by the EU, the Express Tribune reported.
“This is the first rejection of any mango consignment this season,” explained Dr Mubarak Ahmed, director general of Pakistan’s Department of Plant Protection. “We have further tightened up the clearance measures to control the situation.”
Prior to last week’s discovery, which was made in a 4.5 tonne consignment of the fruit, Pakistan has exported some 26,000 tonnes of mangoes to the European Union so far this export campaign.
Wind, rain and hail have all conspired to decimate areas of production in various parts of the Mediterranean country
Cherry producers, marketers and exporters in several parts of Italy are counting the cost of poor weather conditions over the weekend, which resulted in production being hit from Friday until Sunday by a sustained bombardment of severe precipitation including more than 130mm of rain, as well as hail and high winds.
The adverse conditions, which are understood to have struck Emilia-Romagna hardest, have reportedly hit open-field production of cherries, as well as strawberries, worst of all. According to Italiafruit News, the episode will likely result in “significant economic losses”.
Cherry crops without protection that were ready for harvesting in the region around Cesena, in Emilia-Romagna, have been almost completely ruined, with varieties worst affected by cracking said to include Brooks, Giant Red, Roket, Frisco and the trademarked cultivars Sweet Early and Early Star.
In Puglia, in the south, some cherry production was also hit badly by a sudden and violent hailstorm that apparently left a 10cm covering of hailstones on the ground, although the damage was limited to specific areas.
Nicola Giuliano of exporter Giuliano Puglia Fruit told Italiafruit: “In all, about 40-50ha have been affected, which is only around 2-3% of the production around Bari.
“But the hailstorm was very strong and, where it struck, it destroyed 100% of the production of that variety, from Bigarreux and Giorgia to Ferrovia.”
Overall, it has been a bad week for Italian cherry producerts. At the beginning of last week, hail struck cherry trees near Verona, causing widespread damage in the areas of Tregnano and Mezzane.
Retailer lists ‘first-ever’ Bangladeshi mangoes exported to mainstream European markets
Asda will this week receive the first delivery of Bangladeshi mangoes to the UK in a move that signals the start of the country’s access to mainstream international retailers.
The news comes following field visits and sample shipments of nine mango varieties during last year’s season, Bangladeshi local paper The Dhaka Tribune reported. Asda’s buying arm IPL then selected three mango varieties, Himsagar, Langra and BARI Aam-3 (Amrupalli), to import during the 2015 season, the paper said.
A spokeperson for Asda said: “We are due a delivery of the Himsagar variety mangoes from Bangladesh this week and they’ll be available in 10 stores.”
Vice chairman of Bangladesh’s Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Shubhashish Bose, told The Dhaka Tribune: “The mango exports to UK will open the door of earning foreign currencies and will also help the government to start for product diversification.”
Mike Robson, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to Bangladesh, said: “I am really excited to say that mangoes from Bangladesh have market access to UK, meaning it will open a gateway for other supermarkets in Europe.”
Over 150 farmers across the three districts of Satkhira, Chapainawabganj and Rajshahi have now been registered to supply mangoes, the Dhaka Tribune said.
Group’s banana operations in Costa Rica have been awarded carbon neutrality certification by SCS
To coincide with Earth Day 2015, Del Monte Fresh Produce has concluded that its banana operations in Costa Rica have achieved carbon neutrality certification from SCS.
Del Monte has also confirmed its continued commitment to conservation through its reforestation/conservation programmes across all its farming operations worldwide.
Carbon neutrality certification covers the entire custody chain from Del Monte banana farms – consisting of 33 farms and 41 packing houses, totaling 10,653ha – up to the loading port in Costa Rica. Greenhouse gas emission audits were conducted by SCS Global Services and were based on the following four, widely accepted, standards:
• World Resources Institute’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition)
• Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard: Supplement to the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
• Draft Costa Rican Standard 2013 “Metodología para la Cuantificación y Verificación de Remociones Forestales – Borrador”
• SCS’ Carbon Neutrality Requirements (a proprietary standard by SCS Global Services), June 2014
“We are very excited that our banana operations in Costa Rica achieved carbon neutrality status and were certified under these very stringent standards,” said Hans Sauter, vice-president corporate research & development and agricultural services of Del Monte. “With these satisfying results, we are now looking into replicating this experience in other operations.
“This certification validates the effectiveness of our environmental sustainability efforts and it comes on the heels of our recent sustainably grown certification by SCS of our banana and pineapple operations both in Costa Rica and Guatemala,” he added.
As part of the company’s commitment to offset its carbon emissions, Del Monte Fresh Produce continues to invest significant resources in maintaining nature reserves as well as planting trees in its operations worldwide.
It is estimated that by the end of 2015, a total of 7,578ha will be under protected status or reforested. This is in addition to the thousands of trees, many of them local species, which are donated every year to the schools and employees in communities where Del Monte operates.
Organic fruit is enjoying a particularly strong period whereas organic veg isn’t doing so well, but still faring much better than non-organic veg
Organic fruit continues to perform strongly at a time when non-organic fresh produce sales continue to struggle.
Nielsen data for the year ending March 28th 2015 shows organic fruit performing particularly strongly, although organic veg isn’t doing so well.
Finn Cottle, of Soil Association, said: “Year-on-year performance for organic produce is steady, showing 0.9% growth to March 28th 2015: this is very positive when compared against the 5.2% decline on non-organic for the same period.
“Organic fruit sales have been exceptionally strong at plus-9.5%, and improve each month, however vegetables are struggling at minus 3.4%, although outdoing non-organic equivalents, which are declining at minus 10.4%.
“Overall, organic produce represents approximately 2.9% of the total value of sales of produce sold through the supermarkets in the same time period.”
The positive data follows on from the Organic Market Report 2015, released nearly two months ago.
Group has launched a new solution for powdery mildew control in strawberries
Certis Europe’s fungicide product, Karma, has been granted an ‘Extension of Authorisation for Minor Use’ (EAMU) to allow applications to be made on protected and outdoor strawberries.
Karma (potassium hydrogen carbonate), a fully registered plant protection product, is specifically formulated to deliver a low residue risk, short harvest interval, low environmental impact and good curative disease control activity, used as part of an effective IPM anti-resistance strategy and leaving no deposits on fruit.
Dennis Wilson, an independent consultant, outlined the importance of the product for the soft fruit industry.
“Strawberries are the most important home-grown fruit crop, representing almost 50% of the value of all UK-grown fruit output,” he said. “However, most of the currently favoured strawberry cultivators are highly susceptible to powdery mildew.
“Strawberry growers currently have access to several active ingredients to control such disease outbreaks,” Wilson added. “However, the long strawberry harvest season and the imminent, potential loss of some staple actives pose a concern to powdery mildew control going forward.”
The label states that for use of Karma on outdoor and protected strawberries, the maximum individual dose is 3kg/ha. Growers can make a maximum of eight applications per crop per year providing the maximum total dose of 24kg/ha/crop isn’t exceeded.
Cross between plum and mango launched in UK, with retailer predicting it will be a roaring success with its customers
M&S are launching an exclusive new variety of plum to the UK.
The bouea macrophylla, or mango plum as it’s known in English, is a plum that has been crossed with a mango, and has been dubbed the ‘plango’.
The fruit has a bright orange skin, which is firmer than that of a plum and a sweet taste similar to that of an Alphonso mango, but with a softer plum-like texture.
M&S fruit buyer Shazad Rehman, said: “We’re really excited to be introducing the first mango plum to the UK. We know our customers like to try new and interesting fruit, and we’re sure this will be something they will really enjoy.
“It has a soft texture and all the delicious flavour of a mango without any of the hassle to prepare as you can eat the skin.”
The plango is a tropical fruit grown on trees native to southeast Asia.
The M&S team have been working with their specialist growers in Thailand for several years to get it on shelves.
The fruit is much smaller than a traditional mango as it grows to just 5 cm in diameter and 10 cm in length.
Plangos are best enjoyed slightly chilled, and will be available in M&S stores across the country from this weekend (11/12 April) priced at £1 each.