Attendance at the 2010 International Prune Association Congress

Anne Mooney

Australian Prune Industry Association

Project Number: DP10700

DP10700

This report is published by Horticulture Australia Ltd to pass

on information concerning horticultural research and development undertaken for the prune industry.

The research contained in this report was funded by Horticulture Australia Ltd with the financial support of:

AusPrune the dried prune industry

All expressions of opinion are not to be regarded as expressing the opinion of Horticulture Australia Ltd or any

authority of the Australian Government. The Company and the Australian Government accept no

responsibility for any of the opinions or the accuracy of the information contained in this report and readers should rely

upon their own enquiries in making decisions concerning their own interests.

ISBN 0 7341 2513 5 Published and distributed by: Horticulture Australia Ltd Level 7 179 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000 Telephone: (02) 8295 2300 Fax: (02) 8295 2399 © Copyright 2010

HAL Project DP10700

30.11.2010

Attendance at the 2010 International Prune Association Congress

Anne Mooney

Extension Horticulturist

Industry & Investment NSW

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Final Report on HAL Project DP10700 Attendance at the 2010 International Prune Association Congress Project Leader: Anne Mooney Orange Agricultural Institute Locked Bag 6006 Orange NSW 2800 Purpose of this report: This report is produced to pass on information concerning horticultural research and development undertaken for the world-wide dried prune industry. Funding Sources: Horticulture Australia Limited Dried Prune Industry Date of Report: December 2010 Disclaimer: Any recommendations contained in this publication do not necessarily represent current Horticulture Australia policy. No person should act on the basis of the contents of this publication, whether as to matters of fact or opinion or other content, without first obtaining specific, independent professional advice in respect of the matters set out in this publication.

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Contents

Media Summary Page 4 Expected outcomes and how they were achieved Page 6 Results of discussions Page 7 Implications for Australian horticulture Page 8 Technology transfer of information gathered Page 9 Itinerary Page 10 Recommendations Page 12 Acknowledgements Page 12 Contact list Page 12 Evaluation of effectiveness of event Page 13 Appendix 1 Participant reports Page 14

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Media Summary

Eight Australian Prune Industry Association (APIA) members attended the 2010 International Prune Association (IPA) Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. The group was made up of 7 grower and packer representatives and the Australian prune industry development manager. The main objectives of the congress are information sharing, awareness, technology transfer, networking and promoting international co-operation. Attendance at the IPA congress provides information that assists the Australian prune industry to develop better strategies for increasing productivity. Each IPA member country provides a comprehensive national report which affords other countries the ability to develop a comparison with their own industry. This project sought to maintain industry contacts in growing, packing and support services and seek new ones, to investigate new technology and production trends that may assist Australian prune producers to increase efficiency by achieving greater production levels or by increasing competitiveness and reducing production costs. An important component of the IPA congress is the monitoring of production levels in member countries.

• Argentina was not represented at this congress. Production in 2010 is lower than in the past 5 years, with a crop of less than 20,000 tons due to climatic events. There are stocks of almost 10,000 tons. Only a small percentage of their crop is sold domestically. There was a report on the ongoing problems in Argentina with the payment of their membership. The Argentines have been unable to form a cohesive producer organization with which to take up the membership as their growers do not want to form such a group. The IPA Executive were keen to see Argentina become an effective member of the IPA as Argentina is a large producer and is showing signs of continued growth. It was resolved to try to have Argentina host the 2013 IPA Congress and to visit them in the meantime in an attempt to stimulate renewed interest in membership of the IPA. Previously several IPA Missions to Argentina have shown encouraging signs that they would become active participants in IPA, however this has not occurred.

• Chile’s prune production continues to increase. In 2010 it was almost 60,000 tons with most being exported. Domestic consumption is very low and there is a carryover of more than10,000 tons. Chile export to 65 countries. The industry in Chile is actively trying to establish new markets. Considerable damage to processing plants and drying facilities was experienced during the devastating 2010 earthquake.

• France’s crop is 40,000 tons. There is a carryover of over 20,000 tons. The majority of the French crop is sold domestically. In 2010 low quality fruit was destroyed. There are 2 challenges for the French industry; international excess tonnages and changes in European policy of agricultural support.

• Italy is the smallest member of IPA. Italians consume 10,000 tons of prunes, most of which are imported. Domestic production is 1500 ton. Most imports come from California and Chile.

• Prunes account for only 1% of tree fruit production in South Africa. This country produced approximately 1700 tons in 2010 from 430 hectares. South

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Africa produced 3000 tons of sugar plums in 2010. The industry is looking to spread production areas east.

• Californian production in 2010 was just below 150,000 tons, more than half of which was for the USA domestic market. The California Prune Board represents 22 processors and 900 growers. The industry in California is looking to increase export markets, do further research into nutrition and discourage any increase in tree numbers.

• Australia produced a crop of 4500 tons in 2010, following a light crop the previous year. The entire crop is sold on the domestic market.

Representatives from Chile and Australia

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Expected outcomes

1. Information sharing Australian prune growers need international information to assist them to become more competitive. Information will also be shared about non-member countries (e.g Serbia). Information sharing was achieved by attendance at the congress formal sessions on production statistics, individual country reports, research reports, visits to 3 pack houses and also 2 prune producing farms.

2. Awareness Participants will be made aware of all aspects of prune production and processing in other countries. Awareness was achieved by discussions with producers and processors from other countries. Also, awareness of prune production methods in South Africa was gained from orchard, and processing facility visits in Montague, Ceres and Tulbagh regions. Speakers at the congress addressed consumers views of promotion and sales of prunes and also consumer behaviour and preferences. There was a report on the promotion program in India.

3. Technology transfer Delegates will be given information about new technologies developed in other member countries. Presentation of research results was part of the formal proceedings of the congress. Diminishing water resources and fruit growing and breeding fruit with increased health attributes were addressed by leading experts in each field. New technologies were also discussed informally by growers from the different member countries. Much of this information related to the management of the Van de Merwe prune variety which originated in South Africa.

4. Networking Australian growers will be able to establish contacts with growers, processors, packers, marketers and researchers from other countries. Most of the networking was done informally between growers from different countries. Organised functions and the technical tour provided ample opportunity for networking.

5. Co-operation Attendance at this conference will allow all member countries to work together to achieve goals that will benefit producers in all member countries. Co-operation was achieved by having each member country (with the exception of Argentina) being represented by their prune producers.

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Results of discussions

There continues to be an over supply of dried prunes on the world market. It is important that Australian growers are aware of this situation and develop strategies to cope with added burden of overseas imports looking to find a market in Australia. The big producers (California and South American in particular) need to expand export and domestic markets. Mrs Ina Jonker (Consumers Association of South Africa) presented a consumer’s view and suggestions on how to improve the image of dried prunes. Professor David Hughes (Food Marketing Imperial College London) presented a bright and encouraging message on getting the health benefit message through to consumers. Professor Jasper Rees and Dr Phillip Myburgh (Agricultural Research Council) delivered presentations on fruit tree breeding programs that are addressing increasing the health attributes of tree fruit and development of new varieties to make the most of limited water resources. Dr Leon von Mollendorff (Culdevco) explained how industry funds are being distributed to cultivar developing companies. The new IPA president is Gary Thiara from California. The reappointed secretary general is Christian Amblard from France. Visits to Pietie Wolfaart’s farm in Ceres and Jan Theron’s farm in Tulbagh provided information on different techniques being adopted by some South African growers. Fruit is harvested by hand and sundried. Australian prune growers were able to question South African growers about labour costs, management strategies and the Van de Merwe variety.

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Implication for Australian horticulture

The Australian prune industry is the only member of the IPA that has neither government subsidies or the availability of cheap labour. However APIA continues to be competitive with other member countries. The Australian industry is at risk with the overproduction by other countries and the continued effect of drought and other climatic factors on our own production. Chile and Argentina have the capability of producing almost 100,000 tons the majority of which is exported. Maintaining a quality domestic product and active promotion of Australian prunes is vital to the Australian industry Information gained at this congress about the breeding programs will allow Australian prune producers to better manage their production. The congress supplied much new work on understanding consumer demands and more targeted marketing of prunes. This information can be used in Australian marketing strategies. The information gained on this trip should assist Australian producers to achieve greater efficiency by accessing the latest research and development findings, world’s best practice production methods and the latest technology advances.

Australian prune industry delegates in old Ceres prune orchard

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Technology transfer of information gathered Information gathered at the Cape Town congress has been disseminated to all Australian prune growers through the industry publication ‘the Vine’. Prune growers attending the APIA national conference in Griffith next October will be given a presentation of the international congress. Further information is available on the IPA website www.ipaprunes.org

IPA congress delegates visit Montague Fruits

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Itinerary

IPA 2010: Program

Sunday October 24th 17:30 Cape Sun Hotel Executive committee meeting Meeting postponed due to travel difficulties for French delegation Monday October 25th Cape Sun Hotel Cape Town 09:00 Welcome Chris Krone, President of IPA 09:30 Opening of 20th IPA World Congress

Minister of Agriculture Western Cape, Gerhard van Rensberg

09:50 Update on world prune statistics Member country reports 10:00 Australia, Jeff Granger Chile, Hector Claro 11:00 France, Claude Crouzet Italy, Alberto Levi South Africa, Dappie Smit USA, Rich Peterson and Dane Lance Sunsweet Growers Inc 11:40 ‘A consumers view to the promotion and sales of a healthy product

such as prunes’ Mrs Ina Jonker – consumer activist and chair of a consumers association in South Africa

14:00 ‘Consumer behaviour and preferences - How to approach a market with a “new” product such as prunes or dried fruit using the health benefits of the product’

Professor David Hughes, Emeritus professor of food marketing, Imperial College London.

15:00 Report on IPA promotion in India Keith Sunderlal, SCS Group, India 16:00 Historic overview of prune production in the world over the last 20

years followed by a debate Christian Amblard Tuesday October 26th 09:30 ‘How to breed fruit with special qualities with regard to composition to

increase health benefits’ Professor Jasper Rees 10:00 ‘A producer developed commercialisation structure for deciduous fruit

in South Africa’ Dr Leon von Mollendorff, Culdevco 11:00 ‘Growing fruit where water resources are limited – a South African

perspective’ Dr Phillip Myburgh, Agricultural Research Council. 11:30 ‘Orchards of the future’ Dappies Smit, Dried Fruit Technical Services. 13:30 IPA General Assembly IPA Executive Council 19:00 Conference Dinner, Durbanville Hills Winery

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Wednesday October 27th Technical Tour 09:30 Visit Bokomo Foods, home of SAFARI brand, Worcester 12:00 Visit Montague Dried Fruit and Nuts packing plant 13:00 Drive through the remote fruit producing areas of Montagu to Aquila

Safari Lodge and private game reserve Thursday October 28th Technical Tour 09:30 Drive to Ceres 10:30 Visit Graaf packing 11:30 Visit mixed orchard property of Pietie and Shannon Wolfaart,

‘Cascade’ Ceres 14:30 Drive to Tulbagh 19:00 Dinner at Morgansvlei Friday October 29th Technical Tour 09:00 Visit the family stone and pome fruit orchard of Jan Theron

Visit dehydrators and drying yards in Tulbagh 13:00 Executive Council meeting 14:00 Depart for Cape Town, technical tour ends

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Recommendations Information has been disseminated to Australian prune growers about this congress. It is up to individuals to assess suitability of any information for Australian use. No recommendations have been made to Australian growers as a result of this congress.

Acknowledgements

The Australian prune Industry Association acknowledges the support of the following organisation who supplied funding towards this trip: Horticulture Australia Limited

Contact list Australian Delegates: Phillip Anderson philando44@live.com.au Jeff Granger jeffgranger@gmail.com Jim Granger jagranger@bigpond.com Tony Toscan cavasoemainl@bigpond.com Ann Furner afurner@yendapro.com.au Anne Mooney anne.mooney@dii.nsw International delegates: Christian Amblard c.amblard@ipaprunes.org France Rich Peterson rpeterson@cdpb.org USA Pablo Diaz p.diaz@sofruco Chile Alberto Levi comefru@tiscalinet.it Italy Chris Krone dappies@dtd.co.za South Africa Congress presenters: Mrs Ina Jonker Chair, South African Consumer Group Professor David Hughes Professor of Food Marketing , Imperial College London profdavidhughes@aol.com Keith Sunderlal SCS Group, India ksunderlal@scs-group.com Professor Jasper Rees ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, Stellenbosch ReesJ@arc.agric.za Philip Myburgh Senior Soil Scientist ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij,

Stellenbosch MyburghP@arc.agric.za Dr Leon von Mollendorff Culdevco Pty Ltd

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Evaluation of the effectiveness of the event

Australian participants were asked to comment on the value of attendance at the IPA congress. All attendees responded with their comments,(Appendix 1). Some of the information from these reports has been included in the final report. Based on a response from Australians who attended the IPA congress in Cape Town South Africa, most attendees rated the Information sharing, awareness and technology transfer outcomes of the tour equally important. Networking was also important and international co-operation not as much. Table 1 Attendees evaluation of outcomes

Information

sharing AwarenessTechnology

transfer Networking Co-

operation Jeff Granger 1 2 2 1 4 Jim Granger 1 2 2 1 4 Tony Toscan 1 2 2 1 4 Ann Furner 1 2 2 1 4 1 = most useful 5 = least useful

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Appendix 1 Participant reports

Report of the International Prune Association Executive Meetings Held in Cape Town South Africa and Tulbagh in rural South Africa – 26/10/2010 and 29/10/2010. Jeff Granger At each International Prune Association (IPA) Congress two meetings of the IPA Executive Committee are conducted. The first is held prior to the Annual Meeting of members and the second is at the conclusion of the Congress where preparation for the next Congress and midterm Executive Committee meeting are held. The Executive Committee comprises delegates from every member nation with countries producing in excess of 10,000 tonnes of dried prunes (USA, Chile and Argentina) being permitted two delegates. Countries producing less than 10,000 tonnes of dried prunes (South Africa, Italy and Australia) are entitled to only one delegate. The General Secretary of the IPA is based in France. Unfortunately the entire French delegation was delayed due to the industrial problems in France and the first Executive Committee meeting had to be deferred for two days. 1 The committee approved the presentation of Role of Honor (Life Membership) to the founding members of the IPA and to all Presidents of the IPA when they eventually retire from their role with IPA. The initial recipients of the Role of Honor award were three of the French delegation, four of the USA delegation, and one each from Chile and Australia. 2 Issues of membership eligibility were discussed and reluctantly one of the French delegation was asked to leave the organization due to an ongoing unresolved conflict. 3 The accounts of the association were presented and the budget for the 2011 year. The organization is financially sound and the projected budget shows further growth in reserves. 4 There was a report on the ongoing problems in Argentina with the payment of their membership. The Argentines have been unable to form a cohesive producer organization with which to take up the membership as their growers do not want to form such a group. The IPA Executive were keen to see Argentina become an effective member of the IPA as Argentina are a large producer and are showing signs of continued growth. It was resolved to try to have Argentina host the 2013 IPA Congress and to visit them in the meantime in an attempt to stimulate renewed interest in membership of the IPA. Previously several IPA Missions to Argentina have shown encouraging signs that they would become active participants in IPA, however this has not occurred. 5 It was also reported that Serbia, Central Asia and China were potential emerging producing nations for prunes. 6 The IPA funded prune promotion being conducted in India continued to show encouraging results and the Executive supported the continuation of this project.

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7 It was agreed that the next IPA Congress in May 2012 would be conducted in California with the 2013 Congress to be held in Argentina if possible or Australia if Argentina was unable to get organized. 8 A proposal was tabled aimed at broadening the scope of membership of the IPA. At present membership is limited to individual growers or grower organizations. The proposal aims to allow packers and marketers the right to join should they wish to. This proposal was deferred to the 2011 Executive Committee meeting to be conducted in Santiago, Chile in May 2011. The Final meeting of the IPA Executive Committee for the 2010 IPA Congress was held at the close of the Congress and confirmed Mr. Gary Thiara of California as the incoming President. A The meeting agreed that the South African Conference was of an exceptionally high standard and congratulated the outgoing President Mr. Chris Krone and Congress organizer Mr. Dappie Smit on the excellent job they had done in preparing the Congress. The Executive were particularly impressed with the high caliber of the guest speakers along with the magnificent venues and entertainment. B It was agreed that future hosts of the IPA Congress should not attempt to outdo previous Conferences either in venue or meals and entertainment. It was important that attendance at the Congress remained affordable to the average grower with a desire to attend the event. C Some issues of a sensitive nature were carried over to the meeting in Santiago, Chile in May 2011. These included the issue of membership qualification for IPA, and how to get emerging prune producing nations to join the organization. . Prune processing report Jim Granger Immediately following the Congress, we spent two and a half days on a technical tour around the Western Cape. We visited a few dried fruit processing plants, the first being on Wed. 27 Oct at the town of Worcester, called Safari Dried Fruit. Here they mainly packed tree fruit but prunes were also packed in small quantities. One pitter was used. They produced very good quality product. Their QA and HACCP were very high. We also visited Montague Fruit and Nuts. They operated two lines, one for nuts and the other for dried fruit. On 28th October, we visited Graaf Packing, near the town of Ceres. They pack fresh prunes for Woolworths, mainly Van De Merwe, the smallest being 40mm. They handle 150 varieties of fruit. They had ripening rooms which worked at 22 degrees C. On the last day, we visited two orchards at Tulbagh. On one, which had 30 acres of prunes, all harvesting was done by hand. This process consisted of four to five light shakes. Baboons are a problem at harvest time and to keep them at bay, a guard with a whip is employed! Tunnel dehydration was in use on this orchard.

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The next orchard we visited used sun drying, as labour was not a high cost factor. The high use of hand labour in South Africa is economical because of the low farm wage structure ($1 - $2 per hour). Factory workers earn up to $5 per hour.

Congress report Ann Furner Summary

The purpose of the visit to South Africa was to: a) Attend the International Prune Conference. b) Visit Orchards in South Africa’s Western Cape Region. c) Visit prune and dried fruit processing plants;

In October 2010, I was very fortunate to participate in the IPA Conference in Cape Town, South Africa and subsequent farm and processing plant visits in the growing areas of the Western Cape including Tulbagh, Wellington and Montagu. Personally, the interesting highlights included: South Africa and Italy

• Both countries’ level of production seems to be decreasing with Italy producing 1 500 tonnes and South Africa producing 1 000 tonnes in 2010.

• Italy already imports significant quantities and with decreased subsidies it could see production decrease further.

• With the average age of prune orchards in South Africa being 23 years, they are developing new varieties and trying to open new farming land which would be suitable for prune production.

• South Africa is trying to tap into neighbouring African countries to move surplus stocks of prunes.

Australia • The 2010 season saw an excellent crop grown across all regions.

Unfortunately the two marginal growing areas, Young and Cobram, had their crops ruined just prior to harvest due to heavy rain.

• The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA) managed to dry a large crop of high quality prunes even though they experienced a wet harvest.

• Total dry production was over 4500 tonnes. • The MIA is facing uncertainty as permanent water allocations may be

permanently reduced. Chile

• 2009 Chile exported 49 000 tonnes of dried prunes. • Chile has guaranteed that 15 000 hectares of prune orchards will be stable in

the future. • 2010 earthquake significantly damaged processing plants and drying facilities

which lead to 10 days of down time during harvest. • Processors are very export orientated as Chile exports prunes to 65 countries. • The Chileans are focusing on increased local consumption, holding nutrition

workshops for pregnant women and supplying 15 tonnes of prunes a week to public schools.

California • Still the largest producer in the world with 900 growers producing 136 000

tonnes in 2010 with an estimated 26 000 hectares in production. • The production area looks stable with nurseries reporting prune tree sales

declined by 5% in 2010 and will decline a further 8% next year.

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• Export and domestic sales have increased. Re-branding of the dried prune to the dried plum has seen domestic sales increase especially with women between the ages of 25 -54 yrs.

• Olympic swimmer is the spokesperson for the prune industry in America with an advertising campaign focusing on digestive health benefits. There will be several campaigns such as “Eat like a Gold Medalist and Win the Post-Holiday Battle with the Bulge”.

• Sunsweet want the IPA to grow the category of prunes rather then brands. France • The French are dealing with two main issues:

1. Increasing tension on the international market due to excess world tonnages.

2. Changes in the European policy of agricultural support. • With devaluing small fruit and voluntary non-harvest of poor quality fruit the

French have successfully decreased production from 55 000 to 40 000 tonnes in 2009.

• Generic and branded promotions are being run to focus on health benefits and the pleasures of eating prunes.

IPA congress report Tony Toscan

The trip has been a great re focusing experience in realizing how the world production and demand are now very much out of balance and some serious promotion needs to be done in emerging markets in order to address this over supply problem. The southern hemisphere producers have an opportunity in the next few weeks to thin crop loads to produce 70 count or larger fruit as the world has an abundance of small fruit

This supply /demand problem coupled with a historically high Aussie dollar will have serious impacts on returns to producers in Australia and risks further contraction of the industry into fewer hands .

But as we have climate change nothing is certain and the situation can change over night. The encouraging thing is that packers realize they must carry as least 12 months stock forward from year to year, to avoid running out and loosing market share to imports.

It was interesting to note that the Chilean producers do not carry stock forward as they regard there production to be reliable every year at 60,000 tons and expanding , this approach will present risk for the Chileans and opportunity for other producers as if ever they experience a serious slump in production .

For me the experience of interacting with other producers around the globe strengthens my management skills and sharpens focus to world’s best practice which will be shared with other producers.

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IPA Congress report Phillip Anderson The IPA congress held in Cape Town in October 2010 would be the most interesting and informative that I have attended. The guest speaker presentations were of the highest quality and held the attention of all present. Dr Phillip Myburgh, a soil scientist from Infruitec SA delivered a very interesting and detailed paper on soils and irrigation. The research would apply to Australian orchards at a time when we are trying to maintain our production under a lower water allocation. Professor David Hughes of Imperial College London produced a very animated and informative session on marketing our product. After Professor Hughes’ talk had concluded I am sure we all believed that we could sell our prunes to anyone, anywhere at anytime and our industry should be taking advantage of this information. South Africa produces approximately 100 to 1500 tons of prunes and we were fortunate to visit orchards and packing factories in Montagu, Tulbagh and Breede River areas. All farms had a supply of irrigation water from streams, farms dams or good quality underground water. Maintenance and harvesting of all fruit is very labour orientated due to the low cost of wages. One orchard harvests their fruit over a six week period, taking only the ripe fruit each pick ensuring that only the ripest fruit is dried. Prune trees planted are mainly Van de Merwe as they are a low chill cultivar and produce good sized fruit when managed properly. Some orchards were ridged owing to a lack of quality top soil and close planted with drip irrigation. Most of the fruit is sundried and all the samples shown to us were dried well, clean and well presented. The one drying facility we inspected was based on the Californian drier with bin feed water dip trays.