Cape Town - Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, the largest exporter of South African apples and pears, saw a volume increase of about 8% last year, breaking the volume record of 16 million cartons for the first time.
“Although it is still early days, we are hoping to consolidate in 2018, despite the impact of the drought in the Western Cape," said managing director Roelf Pienaar.
"With new orchards coming into production, we should end up with more or less what we planned for 2018. At the moment the rand is extremely volatile against all major trading currencies, which could have significant impact on the values we realise during the year."
Due to the adverse weather it could be that overall fruit size is smaller than in previous years, he cautioned.
"Challenges notwithstanding, Tru-Cape is positive that 2018 will be another profitable year.”
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