© Carolize Jansen | FreshPlaza.comMinister John Steenhuisen didn’t disappoint as keynote speaker at yesterday’s Southern Africa conference organised by the largest industry-led fresh produce organisation globally, the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA).

Right: “Having flowers in the home drives emotional wellbeing,” Max Teplitski, IFPA chief science officer, told the conference

In a slimmed-down version of previous conferences, shedding the trade exhibits, it drew together the entire fresh produce supply (although, as Steve Alaerts, chair of IFPA’s supply chain council noted, seeing as 50% of refrigerated transport revenues are generated through fruit and vegetables, representatives from the shipping lines and port masters ought to be there too).

IFPA 2025 Southern Africa conference photo report

Ozempic significant driver in fresh produce sales
When it comes to the consumer, Prof Patrick Vizzone advised, economics trumps trends and in the United States consumers shop to cut costs with retailer reacting with promotions, with a risk to eroding value. He shared that US organic fruit sales had increased by 9% and that there was a positive correlation between the use of new generation drugs like Ozempic and fruit and leafy greens (and water).

The risks posed by pesticides were weighing on the minds of consumers while the sustainability of its production matters less to them.

© Carolize Jansen | FreshPlaza.comMax Teplitski, IFPA chief science officer

Max Teplitski presented the results of household surveys which indicate that no countries place a higher value on sustainable practices and health – the two seem not necessarily linked in the mind of the consumer – than Germany and the United Kingdom.

He noted a degree of pullback on the European Green Deal and regarding packaging, annex 5 of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is “where fresh produce lives” but there is no finality. On behalf of IFPA and the industry, Teplitski said he would continue educating policymakers with little knowledge of postharvest technologies that “a bag of lettuce is not just filled with air”.

© Carolize Jansen | FreshPlaza.com Jessica Keller, vice-president of industry relations at IFPA, chairs a panel with Prof Patrick Vizzone, Shubha Rawal of IG International, Nico van Schalkwyk of Fruitalyst and Euromonitor’s Relebohile Ramosoeu

IFPA 2025 Southern Africa conference photo report

It was the second time that Shabha Rawal of IG International addressed the conference: India is on everyone’s lips, but she advised anyone with an interest to visit the country themselves and not make well-intentioned mistakes, like the monkey in the fable that rescued a fish by placing it up in a tree.

India imports 750,000 metric tonnes of fruit of which 10% to 15% come from South Africa, and of that 65% are made up of apples and citrus. “Flash Gala has been a game changer,” she observed.

Nico van Schalkwyk of Fruitalyst, grower and exporter of the ClemenGold and LemonGold brands, concurred, remarking that India is, like Europe, divided into distinct regions with particular preferences.

© Carolize Jansen | FreshPlaza.com“When South Africa started exporting to India we thought it would be like the Middle East where you can find a home for everything but it’s not,” he said (right). “India embraces branding. If you’re willing to spend money on a brand it will pay off.”

Rawal referred to the 360 brand of which cricketer AB de Villiers (“AB is a god in India”) is the face: the first container with South African citrus arriving this year sold out in ten minutes, she said.

IFPA Southern Africa conference photo report

Despite high tariffs on South African fruit – 50% on apples, 33% on citrus – the fruit still sell well and she repeated that pears from other regions have been wholly replaced by South African pears in India.

The attendees enjoyed the minister of agriculture’s account of the wrangling behind-the-scenes to negotiate a better post-AGOA deal with the United States in the absence of an ambassador in Washington after South Africa’s previous ambassador angered the United States. Minister John Steenhuisen remarked that South Africa recently appointed its first agricultural attaché, Dr JB Jaftha, to its US Embassy in eight years.

“It is a fanciful notion that you can just say goodbye to the USA and find new markets at the flick of a switch,” he said. The inclusion of the whole of South Africa in citrus exports to the United States – currently only reserved for two provinces, Western and Northern Cape, have been put on the table again but it is subject to the very contentious matter of US pork imports.

© Carolize Jansen | FreshPlaza.com

For more information:
Jane Strijdom
IFPA Southern Africa
Tel: +27 72 619 6611
https://www.freshproduce.com/