Global cable news network, CNN, has featured Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, the largest exporter of South African apples and pears, and wholly owned by its growers, in its recent Marketplace Africa programme.
Tru-Cape Managing Director, Roelf Pienaar, told CNN’s, Cyril Vanier, that while Tru-Cape spearheaded the search for and replanting of the first apple variety ever picked at the Cape, The Wijn Apple, and notes the history of the South African apple industry, it is equally exited by what the future might offer.
“Formal retail as we know it will change,” Pienaar says adding, “We are excited about on-line sales globally and in the local market and the next 10 years will be interesting to see where the industry is at in terms of being closer to the consumer.”
With a global audience of 384,000,000 people, the five-minute feature on CNN further cements the company’s reputation as the leading South African fruit brand.
Pienaar said that a turning point in Tru-Cape’s success, now in its twentieth year, is the company’s ability to understand its customers from “Nigeria, for example, where our customers buy an 18kg box to sell from on the streets to the UK where supermarket chains commit to programmes (advance orders) for shipping-container fulls. We believe that we understand our customers in 105 countries around the world as well as we do in South Africa.”
According to Pienaar, opportunities for the industry include new markets. “We are excited about what China and other new markets might hold for us,” he said in the interview.
CNN also recognised Tru-Cape’s innovative approach to using social-media to reach the consumer more directly on their phones. Click here for a link to watch the interview.
