SHAFFE – The Southern Hemisphere Association of Fresh Fruit Exporters is building on the success of the previous year with a new round of the “The Southern Hemisphere Fresh Fruit Trade Congress” taking place virtually on the 30th of March 2022. With the defining theme “The New Reality for Southern Hemisphere Fruit Exports”, this year’s edition will be dedicated to the changing trade environment, in which SHAFFE members are currently operating. “We want to stay true to ourselves and keep the promise we made in the previous year to our partners, colleagues and friends, to provide reliable market information and updates on the Southern Hemisphere fruit trade outlook for 2022”, says Charif Christian Carvajal, SHAFFE President and representative of ASOEX about the upcoming new edition.
The 2nd virtual Southern Hemisphere Fresh Fruit Trade Congress will be taking place on the 30th of March 2022, providing exclusive market insights from all eight big Southern Hemisphere exporting nations about crop trends, production, and trade outlook for the year ahead. “The success of the previous year with 330 participants from 55 countries has showed us, that there is a strong need for concrete information and preparation of the fruit trade season in an ever-uncertain trading environment”, as highlighted by SHAFFE Secretary General Nelli Hajdu as major motivation, to bring valuable market information to global trading partners. In 2021, SHAFFE has not only improved market intelligence and monitoring within the organisation, but proactively stepped up to advocacy for trade facilitation, partnering up with international organisation such as the FAO and IPPC and bundling energies of all eight Southern Hemisphere countries to build a 2030 action plan on sustainability. The Congress 2022 will share the main strategic achievements, which aim to strengthen the resilience of the sector through intensified collaboration.
With increasing logistical and input costs, with a continuing Covid-19 pandemic and changing societal expectations towards quality and sustainability of the fruit, this year’s Congress-theme “The new reality of Southern Hemisphere exports” has been chosen deliberately, to discuss the current state but also potential domestic and global solutions, to secure long-term viability for the entire produce industry.
SHAFFE Vice-President and Upefruy Uruguay representative Ms. Marta Bentancur highlights further: “We want to contribute to more predictability and market knowledge during these challenging times – and to bridge eventually the gap of missing networking and exchange opportunities.”
As with the first edition, also the second run up will give Northern Hemisphere trading partners the possibility to participate to two passages to their convenience, one at 11.00 am to target Asian trading partners and one at 5.00 pm to allow Northern American and European partners to join. This year’s program will be even more focusing on sharing market intelligence and knowledge by the leading heads of the Southern Hemisphere Fruit sector including contributions from Frutas de Argentina, Australia’s fruit industry (citrus, mango, table grapes, stonefruit and avocado), Abrafrutas Brazil, the Chilean Fruit Exporter Association (ASOEX), New Zealand Apple and Pears, Pro Citrus Peru, Fruit South Africa and Upefruy Urugay. The secretariat is working with high speed towards the launch of the program.
