Dutoit leading the way to South Africa cherries around the globe

Dutoit, one of the leading companies in the fresh produce business in South Africa, is accelerating its investments in the production, packaging, and export of cherries. The initial investments date back 24 years and are still in production, but 13 years ago, Dutoit initiated a new cycle of investments that quickly expanded to a total area of approximately 300 hectares across 6 different farms, all owned by the company and located in various regions of the country.

Cherry Times conducted an exclusive interview with Tanith Freeman, Product Development Manager, and Ivan De Jager, Marketing Manager for Stone Fruit and Cherries.

What prompted Dutoit's new phase of investments in the cherry sector?

The access to new low-chill genetic varieties allowed us to transition from traditional varieties like Regina, Bing, Stella, and Sweetheart to new varieties developed in the United States. This brought several advantages, including extending the season by 4-5 weeks, starting from mid to late October and continuing beyond Christmas in a typical year. The new planting systems we adopted also allowed for a more evenly distributed harvest on the trees, easier management for workers (with an average of 70% of the production being harvestable at waist height), higher planting density, resulting in increased yield per hectare, and a significant reduction in the number of harvests, decreasing from a maximum of 5-6 for old varieties on old plants to 2-3 in the modern ones.

How is the cherry season progressing for Dutoit in 2023?

"An important factor characterizing this season is an advancement of about two weeks, which, despite a cold period in spring that slowed development, will lead us to finish the season before Christmas, approximately 2-3 weeks ahead of a normal schedule," stated Tanith Freeman.

From a commercial perspective, Ivan De Jager reported, "The quality has generally been very good, both in terms of size and taste. Our quality standards involve rigorous checks before shipping, and batches are analyzed to determine their ideal destination. Our baseline parameter is ensuring a firmness of 50 measured with the Durofel. In fact, the lack of medium and small sizes has caused difficulties in supplying the local market."

What role does the domestic market play for Dutoit?

According to De Jager, "Dutoit holds a 65% market share for cherries in South Africa; we supply all major supermarkets, including Woolworths, PickNPay, and Checkers. Despite strong competition from export markets this year, which immediately generated high demand for our cherries, we have still ensured a portion of our production for the domestic market.

Even for second-grade products and rejects, we have developed a commercial pipeline that allows us to maximize the value of the product, diversifying its destination based on quality. The second-grade category is used as an ingredient for yogurts and smoothies or sold to local vendors, while the rejects, given the limited demand for juices, are processed for composting in a company in which we are also shareholders. We are also considering other uses such as drying and freezing."

And the export market?

"Obviously, the export market, where Dutoit is globally present with a wide range of products (in addition to cherries, there are also apples, pears, plums, peaches, and nectarines), plays a key role in our development plans. In the medium term, we aim to target China, to which we already export our pears," said Ivan De Jager. According to Tanith Freeman, "It will take a few more years for protocol approvals, and we anticipate that the Chinese market can be a market for our premium products, specially selected for variety and quality, and exclusively transported by air; a transit time of 4 weeks makes sea transport impractical."

We visited Nooitgedacht farm together, located near Ceres at about 1000 meters above sea level.

Tanith Freeman guided us on the tour: "This farm produces apples, pears and cherries. Currently, the cherry orchards cover 54 hectares. As in other Dutoit farms, 100% of the new plantings are covered, partly with retractable covers because this area is at risk of snowfall (this year, there was some snow in spring).

These covers primarily protect against wind and hail; bird damage is about 4% each season, so we did not plan covers for this specific risk. Regarding rain covers, we are still in the testing phase, but we are leaning towards selective covers for each zone and variety, balancing risks and costs, with the goal of preserving a portion of the harvest to maintain continuity for customers even in the most negative scenarios.

One of our goals is the adoption of multifunctional covers, and we are studying the best solutions for our needs."

At this point in the season, Royal Helen and Lapins remain to be harvested in this farm. What are the characteristics of these varieties?

"Royal Helen produced on this farm is a variety with good firmness, excellent taste and pronounced aroma, good consistency, and a good, uniform size. We expect a yield of 15 tons per hectare, but we usually manage to produce 20 tons. This year, the main calibers were between 26-28 and 28-30, making it very interesting, better than it has ever been before. With Lapins, the yield averages around 22 tons per hectare.

In this farm, we also conducted trials with early, low-chill varieties, but we did not see benefits as this is a relatively late area, and Royal Tioga matured later than Royal Hazel."

The processing of cherries from the six farms is carried out centrally in the warehouse in Ceres, Western Cape.

What are the cherry processing procedures at Dutoit?

Ivan De Jager outlines the main phases: "Cherries are currently harvested in small containers of 8.25 kilograms. However, we are reviewing our processes to switch to the use of 180-kilogram mini bins, which allow better product management even during warehouse handling phases.

The first phase of the post-harvest management process involves the use of three hydro-cooling plants, two located on the farms farthest from the warehouse and one directly in the warehouse. Pre-cooling lasts about two minutes with chlorinated water at a temperature of +2 °C. The product is then transferred to a refrigerated cell. With a temperature of +5 °C and 98% humidity, where it stays for a maximum of 24 hours.

Each batch is identified by farm of origin, variety, and harvest date. Quality checks are primarily focused on BRIX and firmness parameters.

The product is then sent for packing. A Unitec line, in its second season with a capacity of about 80 tons per day (two shifts), is in operation. This plant, along with another smaller line, allows us to pack approximately 120 tons of cherries every 24 hours. New investments are already planned for additional processing lines to handle the increase in production, which within two or ten years will reach 6000 tons.

Currently, due to packing capacity limits, pre-packing is done exclusively for the domestic market, where we package in baskets of 250 g, 400 g, 500 g, 1000 g, and in handle bags. For export, we use two formats: 2 kg net and 5 kg net."

The last question concerns your branding policies. How do you approach different markets?

"We believe cherries should be marketed as a premium product. For this reason, experiments we conducted with the sale of second-grade products were done in markets completely different from those where we sell the first choice. This is to not compromise our brand in any way.

On the other hand, we realize that not all customers require a brand. Many European supermarkets purchase the product in bulk to process it themselves; in this case, we provide the product in neutral Havana-colored cartons to optimize costs and environmental impact.

And what are your commercial brands?

Ivan De Jager concludes: "First of all, I want to emphasize that the South African origin of our cherries is highlighted on every package. In this way, we aim to contribute to promoting South Africa as a source of high-quality cherries.

In addition to our historic Cherry Time brand, we recently added the 'Sweet Season' and 'Martinet' brands. The latter is a bird that, in heraldic tradition, is depicted without legs. We have taken its inability to perch on a branch as a symbol of our tireless search to discover new opportunities for our products."

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