The Cape logo will adorn non-South African top fruit for the first time from March, after an agreement between Capespan and growers in New Zealand. The company said the move is designed to give it a more comprehensive offer of fruit under its well-respected brand name.

The company will be sourcing a range of fruit, focusing on Royal Gala and Braeburn, which at present is produced in only limited quantities in South Africa. It will also include varieties introduced to the market by Enza as the Pacific range, but which will be marketed by Capespan as New Zealand Beauty, New Zealand Rose and New Zealand Queen.

'New Zealand is the biggest opportunity for South African fruit since deregulation [in 1997],' said Ronan Lennon, managing director of Capespan UK: 'We genuinely believe that the Cape brand is a major asset and it can only enhance the reputation of New Zealand fruit. And it is the perfect way for us of widening our apple and pear portfolio.' He added: 'South Africa is heavily geared towards Granny Smith and Golden Delicious – which have gone backwards slightly in terms of demand. There is production of Royal Gala and Pink Lady in the country but volumes are small at the moment; and Braeburn is never going to be a major line for the country. This is the perfect way of procuring an eight-month supply of these varieties.' The Capespan group hopes that this year it will handle one million cartons of New Zealand fruit around the world. Around 800,000 will be marketed in Europe, with 300,000 of these bound for the UK and Irish markets through the Capespan and Fyffes partnership. The Irish market is expected to take mainly Royal Gala, with the UK having a more even spread between Royal Gala and Braeburn. And 30,000-40,000 cartons of Comice and Taylor's Gold pears will be sold in the UK and Ireland.

Some 200,000 cartons of New Zealand fruit will be sold in North America through Capespan's US arm, Fisher Capespan.

The first Cape-branded New Zealand apples to arrive on the UK market will be Cox and New Zealand Beauty, forecast to arrive in mid-March, followed by Royal Gala in April.

Lennon said that while some South African growers remain unhappy about the new development, the majority have given it their support. He added that Capespan is convinced of the benefits to growers in both South Africa and New Zealand.

'This is an entirely complementary business,' he said. 'We wouldn't have used the Cape logo for the first time outside South Africa if we felt it would be detrimental to the South African business. Cape is well and truly the best-known apple brand in the UK, it stands head and shoulders above the rest.' Capespan will be evaluating the success of its New Zealand link-up before it goes ahead with further plans for Cape.

'We have no plans to make Cape a year-round brand, or expand outside of New Zealand,' said Lennon. 'We have got to prove that this works first He added that the company would also wait at least a year before even considering using the Cape brand on fruit types other than apples and pears.

Meanwhile, apple industry officials have predicted that one-time monopoly operator Enza will control 60 per cent of this year's export crop.

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