Cape Town,
Afrique du Sud 
Elevage, Maraichage, Arboriculture … From 2 to 9 November 2015
At the request of AREFLH (Assembly of European Fruit, Vegetable and Horticultural Regions), INTERCO Aquitaine led a mission to South Africa to discover the particularities of the fruit sector.
The mission focused on the analysis of the apples, pears and table grapes sector, in which South Africa is a world leader. It was interesting to understand the workings of this industry, which is highly focused on research and development, and which serves mainly export markets.
The delegation was received by HORTGRO, a communication and research platform for the South African horticultural sector.
On the program: visits to different structures such as farms, orchards, research and varietal crossing centers, packaging plants, as well as meetings with professional organizations in order to have a complete vision of the sector and the actors.
GOALS :
- study the apples & pears sector
- discover the table grape sector
- understand the particularities of the soil, the climate and the hemisphere (inverted seasonality), their impact on the sector and the possible synergies with the European regions
- to discover the R&D programs, especially in the field of varietal crossing
- to find areas of collaboration between AREFLH and HORTGRO on pear
RESULTS :
- a highly specialized approach to the sector
- complementarities on the inter-seasonality (north/south hemispheres)
- a first project of collaboration between AREFLH and HORTGRO concerning the export of the world pear congress INTERPERA in South Africa for its next edition in 2016
