{"id":22980,"date":"2025-08-07T09:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T09:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=22980"},"modified":"2025-08-07T09:57:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T09:57:40","slug":"stone-fruits-from-south-africa-to-accost-china-in-coming-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/08\/07\/stone-fruits-from-south-africa-to-accost-china-in-coming-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone fruits from South Africa to accost China in coming seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South Africa is aggressively targeting a China entry for local stone fruits by the export season beginning from October 2025, onward.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/grondtotmond.com\/2025\/08\/05\/suid-afrikaanse-steenvrugprodusente-fokus-op-chinese-mark\/\"><u>Grond tot Mond&nbsp;<\/u><\/a>on August 5, 2025, bilateral talks are ongoing for shipping peaches, nectarines and plums.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After visiting China in end July 2025, South Africa\u2019s Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen came back with high hopes. He stated that a preliminary agreement in Beijing could come to fruition this September during the G20 Ag ministers&#8217; meet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adding an icing to the wait is the fact that China\u2019s 1.4 billion people are increasingly preferring organic fruits.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This at a time when Beijing has lately become as stringent as the European Union (EU) in aseptic controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experts however strongly believe that the traditional organic status of fruits from South Africa will eventually win over China.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among them is Justin Chadwick, Chief Executive at the Citrus Producers Association, who confirms the coming of China\u2019s biosecurity standard inspectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apart from enforcing biosecurity traceability of each fruit to its origin, Beijing will also require on-board cooling to reduce transit infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The requirements will be easy game, given that SA\u2019s peaches and nectarines have traditionally shipped to highly strict Western markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-fast-tracking-2024-25-exports\"><strong>Fast-tracking\u00a02024-25 Exports<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If the agreement hatches within 2025, it will bridge the southern hemisphere\u2019s stone fruit marketing season that runs October through April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Production is also at a tipping point, approximating<a href=\"https:\/\/www.producereport.com\/article\/south-african-stone-fruits-set-enter-china-year-end\"><u>&nbsp;182 million kg<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;for nectarines\/ peaches and 93 million kg for plums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the recently concluded 2024-25 stone fruit marketing season, plums (<a href=\" www.selinawamucii.com\/plants\/rosaceae\/prunus-domestica\/\"><em><u><em>prunus domestica<\/em><\/u><\/em><\/a>)&nbsp;had the biggest share, at 13.8 million cartons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also impressive were peaches at<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paltrack.co.za\/2025\/06\/04\/south-african-stonefruit-exports-increase\/\"><u>&nbsp;9.4 million cartons<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;(16% yearly growth) and apricots at 678,666 boxes (50% growth).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peaches at 1.6 million cartons were the only niche produce that recorded low 2024-25 growth, at -4% year-on-year. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since quality is the centerpiece of stone fruit shipments, China is at an advantageous position as 82% of stone fruits from South Africa ship fresh. The story is no different for shipments to other destinations, based on the following production and export statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-south-africa-stone-fruits-statistics\"><strong>South Africa Stone Fruit<\/strong>s <strong>Statistics\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Worth 3.85 billion Rand ($217.2 million) annually, with 1\/3<sup>rd<\/sup>&nbsp;from plums, the South Africa stone fruit industry is economically important. The country produces around<a href=\"https:\/\/lucentlands.co.za\/2025\/02\/03\/south-african-stone-fruit-driving-global-growth-in-2025\/\"><u>&nbsp;350,000 tonnes<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;of the fruits annually, of which nectarines and peaches represent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.producereport.com\/article\/south-african-stone-fruits-set-enter-china-year-end\"><u>182,000 tonnes<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;(2023). Since fresh fruits make up&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/lucentlands.co.za\/2025\/02\/03\/south-african-stone-fruit-driving-global-growth-in-2025\/\"><u>82%<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;of the annual sales of stone fruits, they have made traditional markets in the West. In 2025, plans to export them to China were nearing the breakthrough stage. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;much plums does South Africa produce annually?<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;2023, the plum and sloes output in SA turned the stone fruit margins at 94,288 tonnes, according to the&nbsp;<a href=\"#data\/QCL\"><u>FAOSTAT<\/u><\/a>. Commanding the biggest harvest among its fruit category, the plum crop grows on 11,802 hectares (ha), as of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is the nectarine, apricot and peaches portion in SA\u2019s stone fruit harvest<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on 2023\u2019s production data, apricots trail niche production at&nbsp;<a href=\"#data\/QCL\"><u>24,887 tonnes&nbsp;<\/u><\/a>while peaches and nectarines garner 188,048 tonnes. In acreage, apricots averaged 3,010 ha in 2023, behind peaches and nectarines\u2019 10,104 ha.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa is aggressively targeting a China entry for local stone fruits by the export season beginning from October 2025, onward.\u00a0 According to&nbsp;Grond tot Mond&nbsp;on August 5, 2025, bilateral talks are ongoing for shipping peaches, nectarines and plums.&nbsp; After visiting China in end July 2025, South Africa\u2019s Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen came back with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.3 (Yoast SEO v20.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stone fruits from South Africa to accost China in coming seasons - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; 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