South Africa's industry body expects an upsurge in demand for apples and pears in India due to in-transit cold treatment procedure

Johannesburg: A top industry body on Monday said it expects an upsurge in demand for South Africa's apples and pears in the Indian market after New Delhi approved the in-transit cold treatment procedure, a move analysts say will reduce transit time of the produce considerably.

“We welcome the Indian government’s decision as it allows us to ship quality fruit from South Africa to India in a short span of time,” said Jacques du Preez, General Manager for Trade and Markets at Hortgro, the representative body for the South African deciduous fruit industry.

With the in-transit cold treatment procedure, suppliers and the Indian importers both stand to benefit as the transit time reduces considerably. The advantage of the cold treatment of the products in-transit is that better quality and fresher fruit arrive at the destination country, he explained.

“South African apples and pears have received a phenomenal response from Indian consumers, and we believe that the volume will rise significantly due to this announcement. This change in the process allows shippers to increase the length of the season and consumers to get fresher fruit,” he noted.

Hortgro has intensified its marketing in India in 2021, increasing exports threefold year-on-year for apples and almost doubling pear exports.

"Last season was the first time we tested the waters with our market development programme," Du Preez said, adding that interest and participation from importers had exceeded Hortgro expectations.

Hortgro's India campaign comprised a range of marketing activities, targeting key stakeholders to boost awareness of South African apples and pears under the slogan 'Beautiful Fruits from the Beautiful Country'.

Hortgro's India representative Sachin Khurana said there had been “a lot of interest and enthusiasm from large importers and retailers from India in the business possibilities that South African produce brings." Sales of South African apples in India increased from 1,83,000 cartons in 2020 to 7,68,900 cartons in 2021, according to industry estimates.

Pear sales topped 1.57 million cartons, an increase of around 43 per cent year-on-year from 1 million cartons in 2020.

Since the beginning of 2022, South Africa has exported more than 2.5 million boxes of apples and pears to India.

South African apples and pears are now readily available in India at modern retail outlets, neighbourhood stores, push-cart vendors as well as leading online stores, Hortgro added.