Are You Coming Along?
Traditionally Summer Citrus from South Africa, hosts an annual planning session towards the end of March/early April each year. The purpose of the session is to review the past season and plan for the upcoming one. The session normally is attended by growers, exporters, importers, US and SA service providers, US retailers and over the years we have had some pretty amazing keynote speakers. The function has become a sought-after event and the goal is really to rally for the season ahead and elevate our successful model of collaboration, which today is renowned globally.
The highlight is of course the social function, which is normally a great opportunity for old friends to connect and new ones to be made. This is a beautiful event filled with enormous amounts of South African hospitality and as you’ll see in the video from 2019 and below, this was the last time the function was held. For those that are close to our program, you will notice many familiar faces! This function was extra special as we celebrated 20 years of success and never expected the year ahead in 2020 that we have all forged through.
Now managing business through the pandemic, people have become accustomed to connecting on-line, with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and via virtual events, making it easier to connect with anyone across the globe. But for those accustomed to South African hospitality and our culture, they will agree that a planning session in South Africa was a greatly missed opportunity for all involved in both 2020 and 2021. The goal of our annual meeting in South Africa really is for people to connect with the team, the land, to foster relationships and build new ones.
What makes our model of collaboration unique is that most of the parties around the table are in fact rivalries! Meanwhile, each season this group of competitors work together to make each other better! In the end it is all about managing our challenges and capitalizing on opportunities.
Until we are able to meet once again in South Africa, please enjoy this memory from the 2019 planning session in Citrusdal, South Africa.
Until we are able to meet once again in South Africa, please enjoy this memory from the 2019 planning session in Citrusdal, South Africa.
We are proud sponsors of the 2021 Women’s Fresh Perspectives Breakfast at Fresh Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Production Update
Since the beginning of 2021, we have put a lot of effort toward ensuring that we keep the flow of our program a smooth one for all involved. Heightened communication and keeping our supply-chain partners informed and understand their role throughout the process is the objective.
We started by hosting our weekly operational meetings via Zoom to provide up to date information, to forecast expected shipments, sales-rates and inventory levels with our service providers.
This season, overall production is expected to be slightly delayed and overall volumes could grow by 5-7%.
Easy Peelers
We started packing very limited volumes of earlier Clementines and will really only get going over the next 2-3 weeks. The Easy Peeler category is the one expected to grow overall; both on Clementines and Mandarins, but mostly later Mandarin varieties.
Oranges
Overall production is definitely later and slightly lower than 2020 and will most likely start 2-3 weeks from now.
Stay in touch with our importers and exporters to meet your needs for the upcoming Summer!
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Marketing Update
Our marketing team has been working to plan for a successful season to drive demand for Summer Citrus from South Africa!
Whether you’re reading story about SCSA in a trade publication and seeing one of our advertisements promoting our sweet summer fruit, we are full steam ahead elevating awareness about our available product.
Adding to this, we have a healthy consumer marketing program that will reach shoppers across the USA to drive awareness, trial and purchase of citrus from SA. We will keep you posted in the weeks and months to come as more of our marketing activations come to life.
Thank you for being part of our success and for your continued support!
Suhanra Conradie
CEO – Summer Citrus from South Africa
