June 12, 2003
By Nicky Smith
Johannesburg - Europe will soon be tucking into fresh fruit salads prepared a stone's throw away from Johannesburg International airport.
Yesterday listed agribusiness Afgri released its annual report and said its new business unit, Afgri Fresh Cut, was ready to supply the international retail market.
Next week Fresh Cut will be sending its first consignment of fruit salad to Denmark, where it will be distributed through Danish retailer Dansk.
Afgri's marketing executives are in Europe finalising supply deals with Belgian and Dutch retail chains. There are also deals with UK high street retailers such as Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer.
Jeff Wright, the managing director of the Afgri group, said the samples it had sent over were receiving rave reviews.
"We are very excited. They are very impressed with our samples," Wright said.
Locally prepared salads have the advantage of being prepared from fresh fruit. The value-added fruit market in Europe has to make do with fruit that has been in refrigerated containers at sea for anywhere up to three weeks
.
Brett Roosendaal, a technical director at Afgri Services, said the value of the fresh cut market in the UK was £110 million annually and it was growing between 28 percent and 35 percent year on year. He said the value for fresh cut produce in the US was $10 billion.
"It's only really starting to take off in Europe. It has been going for a while in Italy and Greece," he said.
Afgri described the European market as immature and said it had no real figures available for the value of the market.
Roosendaal said it was hoped that this market would grow at about the same rate as the UK market. He said the anticipated turnover for the group from its foray into Europe would be about R100 million by next February.
The move into value-added fruit products is in line with the group's strategy to diversify its business away from its reliance on grain and oil seeds.
Afgri's chairman Pietman Erasmus said the group expected to maintain earnings growth of between 15 percent and 20 percent.
The share price closed 20c down at R4.20 yesterday.
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