Job losses threaten fruit canning

2010/03/16

Job losses are looming in the fruit canning industry due to the threat of destabilisation by the strong rand, an industry body warned.

"As a developing country, South Africa cannot accept further job losses and should follow the lead of many other similar countries to ensure that exports are not strangled by an overvalued currency," SA Fruit and Vegetable Canners Association chairman Rudi Richards said in a statement.

The strong rand had placed the export sector, particularly fruit canning, under significantly more strain in the global recession. An industry delegation presented its case at the trade and industry parliamentary portfolio committee hearing earlier this month. "During the hearing, the industry... praised the elevation of agri-processing, which could support labour-absorbing export industries in rural areas." The export-driven R1.5 billion fruit canning industry was trapped between the current rate of exchange, approximately 20 percent stronger than last year this time, and local cost increases, including the much-publicised recent electricity hikes.

Nassos Martalas, chief operating officer of Langeberg and Ashton Foods, the country's largest fruit canner, called for equitable market access into key markets, particularly of SA products into the European Union, as well the non-reciprocal treatment of duty-free access of EU products onto the local market.

In SA the fruit and vegetable canning industry provides approximately 30,000 jobs in the Western Cape, at more than 30 factories in rural areas. About 17,000 labourers work at more than 1500 farms supplying the industry. The industry currently supports more than 120,000 dependents. (Source : Sapa)