He was speaking at a dinner for stakeholders and the media after the Hostex Expo in Midrand where the Greek Kiwi Producers Association exhibited their products. “The annual total trade between South Africa and Greece historically lies at a relatively low level of approximately €100 million in the past five years, standing at €92.36 million for 2015. However, while trade flows between the two countries have certainly been low, there is definitely scope to do better on both sides,” he said.
Apart from processed fruit and vegetables, South Africa also exported fresh citrus (€2,7 million), apples and peaches (€760.000) and apricots and cherries (€85.000) over the past year. Exporting fresh kiwi fruit from Greece to South Africa, as part of the Hello Kiwi programme, will afford Greece the opportunity to export fresh fruit to South Africa.
“Agricultural trade is an essential part of the EU/SA bilateral trade relations. Cooperation at technical level has delivered important results by facilitating the continuation of trade and the processing of a number of cases related to import conditions. The green light for kiwi imports will open the door for other fruit produced by Greece,” he said.
According to Dermetzoglou the fruit growing seasons in the two countries complement each other and create mutual benefits for them. He emphasised that Greece is implementing a roadmap for stabilising the national economy for sustainable growth, which makes it an ideal trading partner. “In a world where we all face a wide range of challenges, we definitely need to improve the overall conditions for our two countries to engage and increased trade is, of course, an important element of this,” he said.
