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South African fresh industry saves Berlin participation

02 December 2011

The South African fresh produce industry has saved its participation in Fruit Logistica after the government reduced its support

South Africa will still have a pavilion at Fruit Logistica in Berlin in February but the scale of participation has been reduced dramatically after the South African government reduced its support.

“We have been forced to go it alone this year,” says the Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum’s Stuart Symington. “We were informed at a fairly late stage that the government, and in particular the government’s Department of Trade and Industry (dti) wanted to renegotiate its contribution. This would have been a long process, given the experience of past negotiations. We had no choice to fall back on the industry to save South Africa’s participation at this coming Fruit Logistrica.”

Fruitnet.com reports that the budget and the scope of South Africa’s participation have been cut by 50%. “We managed to secure significant contributions from Hortgro Services in the deciduous sector and SATI, the table grape organization, as well as from four leading exporters who have taken up space at our stand. This has helped us to raise the minimum figure which was needed to save our participation,” says Mr Symington.

“This is our tenth participation in Fruit Logistica in Berlin and we have managed to grow our presence over the years. This is a major setback, but we simply had to scale down or cancel.”

Mr Symington says participation in Fruit Logistica in Berlin is vital to maintain South Africa’s reputation as one of the leading fresh produce suppliers in the world. Earlier this year he told fruitnet.com that the dti had increased its contribution and hinted that the coming Fruit Logistica would have been South Africa’s biggest participation yet.

“We had to cut almost our entire marketing budget for the event. It is a tribute to the resilience of the industry, in very difficult times that it has been able to pull the rabbit out of the hat at the last moment.”
 

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