COVID-19 delays market access for SA citrus

The citrus industry has suffered several setbacks in global market access as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the industry is rapidly expanding, new markets are crucial to maintaining profitability. Lindi Botha reports on the latest developments.

Much work has been done to open the Chinese market for South African lemons and it was expected that the 2020 crop would be the first to enter this lucrative market, according to Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa (CGA).

“The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development [Thoko Didiza] was due to travel to China in March to sign the new cold treatment protocol that would allow us to ship lemons to that country.

“But all travel was put on hold due to the coronavirus disease pandemic [COVID-19], so the documents remain unsigned.

“China has a big appetite for lemons, and since our lemon volumes are increasing substantially each year, if we can’t open new markets it will impact our returns.”

Access to Vietnam and the Philippines had also been placed on hold.

“Inspectors from Vietnam were due for a visit to South Africa in July as part of the process to allow our exports into Vietnam, but the visit has been postponed. The Philippines government was supposed to come back to us by February regarding protocols for citrus shipments, but now the whole process has been slowed down. We hoped to be in Philippines by the start of our citrus season, but that has not happened.” The global halting of trade due to the pandemic had also brought the progress made to open markets in the US and India to a standstill.

“We have been waiting for finalisation of improved access to the US for three years, and now we are facing further delays.

“We were also due to go to India in April to try to resolve the delay in finalising the cold treatment protocols, which they have still not completed. That trip could not take place and so our access is further delayed,” said Chadwick.

He added, however, that while there had been disruptions in supply due to logistical challenges as a result of the pandemic, the industry had still shipped more fruit to date than in the same period last year.

“We had an early start to the season, so we were able to get more fruit onto the market before the major disruptions hit us. To date there has not been any fruit that has gone to waste due to the delays on our side, but possibly on the market side.”

Meanwhile, the CGA’s grapefruit focus group expressed concern about market conditions in the Far East. Japan was the dominant buyer of South African Star Ruby and Marsh grapefruit, but sales had been down by a quarter compared with last year, due to logistical difficulties.

“At these sales levels, there are four to five weeks of grapefruit