Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing is the largest exporter of South African apples and pears and has almost completed its picking season on farms in Ceres, the greater Grabouw region and in the Langkloof.

Ceres Fruit Growers (CFG) is a shareholder in Tru-Cape along with Two-a-Day. CFG Managing Director, Francois Malan, was one of the industry leaders who publicly asked Eskom to ensure uninterrupted power during the peak picking season, February to May, as fruit has to be quickly cooled soon after being picked and stored, all of which requires uninterrupted power.

“We are grateful that government has legislated that the fruit industry is an essential service and we hope that this accurate description is also acknowledged by the power utility in the coming months too when load shedding may again be experienced. The mines are rarely subjected to power cuts and we ask the same for the fruit industry”, he says adding: “That said, we really appreciate that we had the required power when we needed it most and want to thank Eskom for their efforts.”

Despite the obvious Covid-19 challenges, the Western Cape has concluded a successful harvest and  Tru-Cape is cautiously optimistic.

Annually, Tru-Cape produces and markets about 1, 811 539 405 pieces of fruit which can also be expressed as weighing the same as 46 067 African Male Elephants. Considering the average weight of 117g per piece of fruit, that’s a lot of apples and pears.

Tru-Cape Managing Director, Roelf Pienaar, says that while Tru-Cape exports to more than 104 countries around the globe, the local market is, by far, Tru-Cape’s greatest customer. “This year we are just under halfway through all our produce being sold on both the export and local market.  Total sales to the African continent (including the local market) represent almost 50% of our total sales – something that we are very proud off.” Pienaar ends.

Based on orchards already in the ground on Tru-Cape farms, the company expects production in the next three to five years to increase to 237 500 tons which, back to the African Elephant example, is about 51630 African Elephants by weight – that’s about five and a half-thousand more African Elephants worth of apples and pears by weight than currently on the market.