Development could open door to Australia, too

By DAN WHEAT

Capital Press

CHELAN, Wash. -- The first U.S. apples ever sold to South Africa are due to arrive there Dec. 4.

While it's taken more than a decade of work for that to happen, the real significance is it should help pave the way for opening the much larger Australian market, said Rebecca Baerveldt, export marketing manager of the Washington Apple Commission in Wenatchee, Wash.

South Africa, Australia and Japan have banned U.S. apples for years, citing pest concerns, mainly fire blight, a bacterium that kills apple trees.

Armed with work by Rodney Roberts, a research plant pathologist at the U.S. Agricultural Research Service Tree Fruit Research laboratory in Wenatchee, the U.S. successfully argued to the World Trade Organization that fire blight cannot be carried on mature, symptomless apples, the only kind exported.

The WTO struck down Japan's barriers in 2003 and in June 2005 found Japan in violation of international law by failing to comply with the 2003 ruling. In September 2005, Japan dropped its fire blight restrictions. But Japan continues costly codling moth restrictions that has kept U.S. apples out, said Jim Archer, manager of Northwest Fruit Exporters in Yakima, Wash., an industry trade organization.

The WTO fire blight ruling on Japan helped the U.S. negotiate an end to restrictions in South Africa, said Bill Bryant, chairman of Bryant Christie Inc., a Seattle trade consulting firm. The firm has been working for Northwest Fruit Exporters for more than 10 years to open South Africa, Bryant said. An agreement was reached in mid-September of this year that applies only to exporters in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, said Eric Rosenberg, market access account manager for Bryant Christie.

"This is one market where we've been able to get a win and see it open up," Rosenberg said. "The final component was two South African inspectors coming here and visiting orchards and packing houses, which happened in August."

The first apples to South Africa are Red Delicious from Chelan and Brewster, said Tom Riggan, general sales manager of Chelan Fresh Marketing in Chelan. He said 4,000, 40-pound boxes of apples will arrive in Capetown, South Africa, Dec. 4 after an approximately 40-day ocean voyage from Seattle across the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Thereafter, the company will ship 1,000 boxes a week through the end of February. The company will make about $325,000 on the sale with arrival cost for the buyer at about $27 a box, including $8 per box in shipping, Riggan said.

"I met the buyer of this retailer at a Berlin trade show in 2006 and he was interested in Washington Reds for South Africa and India," Riggan said. "The next year he sent three guys from his company and we took them through our facilities and showed them our orchards."

South Africa grows Gala, Granny Smith and Braeburn apples, but it can't grow Red Delicious like Washington, Riggan said.

"The retailer, FreshMark, wanted something unique. They wanted Reds for Christmas. Every market we go into sees Washington Reds as the Mercedes-Benz of apples," he said.

"What's neat is how the world is slowly opening up. All these markets are potentially huge. We've been in Morocco for three years now and Libya for a couple of years. It's hard to know how good they could be," Riggan said.

Rosenberg said the opening of South Africa should increase pressure on Australia and that a New Zealand apple market access request for apples to Australia before the WTO also could help the U.S.

Baerveldt said every new market is a good market, but South Africa is a niche market and Australia is the bigger prize.