South Africa shares its plum love with Brits
Good news, SA plum growers have reported excellent crop quality this season, which makes the job of the Hortgro, the governing body of the SA deciduous fruit industry, an easy one.
Hortgro is hoping to encourage UK consumers to increase their consumption of plums – a healthy, nutritious, fibrous and convenient snack-on-the-go – and has planned a range of promotional activity with retailers, including promotional plum shrouds in Morrisons, booklets in Sainsbury’s plum packs, a recipe banner on the Waitrose site and a promotion on Supersweet plums in Tesco.
With the plum season now in full swing, Hortgro predicts a 4% rise in exports to 15.8m cartons.
And suppliers say consumers can look forward to a top-class eating experience.
“The industry was concerned about sun damage to the fruit after experiencing temperatures around 40 degrees, but despite that fruit quality and taste is excellent this season,” said Jacques du Preez, Hortgro GM of Trade and Markets.
A large variety of plums – including red, purple and yellow – are grown extensively in SA’s Western and Eastern Cape, offering consumers a wide selection of flavours, textures and colours. The fruit, which are high in fibre and a source of vitamins A, C, and E as well as potassium and carotene, will be available in UK retailers from January to May. The plum varieties to look out for include Fortune, African Delight, Sapphire, Ruby Sun and Flavor King.