Developing trust

The WellPict trust is now fully up and running in South Africa. The trust represents about 70% of the country's strawberry production and membership of raspberry and cherry growers is set to increase significantly in 2005.

The trust acts as a single channel marketing organisation. It became necessary for three main reasons

- to coordinate the supply of soft fruit to the export, retail and non-retail markets

- to take advantage of economies of scale and

- to protect the intellectual property rights incorporated in the Plant Breeders' Act

The objectives and modus operandi of the Trust are listed briefly below.

Objectives

The primary objective of the Trust is to serve the interests of the growers, plan breeders and owners and customer base to promote a win, win scenario by

- Ensuring the volumes planted are in accordance with market requirements

- Buliding brand recognition for all fruit grown and sold.

- Benchmarking and therefore guaranteeing the minimum quality standards

- Working with the customers to advance its sales through consistent national supply,

guaranteed quality, innovation and reasonable pricing.

Exploiting the export market wherever possible

Working with Stargrow Cultivar Development (Pty) Ltd to ensure compliance with the Plant Breeders Act

The WP Marketing Trust is a cooperative organisation representing a wide spectrum of growers around the country on a one vote, one share basis. The trust is responsible for  soliciting retail, export and non-retail customers locally and abroad. Plants will be sold  to growers based on this estimated demand. This will ensure that the volume of fruit grown  at least matches the demand. This market share will be allocated to growers via a quota  system. This quota will become the property of the grower and may even be tradeable between  members of the Trust and the maintenance of quota will be based on performance. The trust  will directly market all export and programmed retail and non-retail fruit. However,  regional representation of the Trust by growers will also be an important part of the Trust's marketing strategy. Growers will be levied for the services provided and surplus  profits will be redistributed back to growers based on their patronage.

The Trust will also facilitate bulk purchasing of imputs on behalf of the growers.

Branding

A key aspect of the Trust will be the branding of its products. Educating customers,  EurepGap and the farmers about the varieties will undoubtedly lead to increased awareness  and therefore sales. Strict quality specifications will ensure that all branded product will be well acepted in the marketplace.

Growers will be located in different geographical regions around the country. A grower  responsible for aligning himself with an approved packhouse, which, in time must comply with  certain minimum standards and serve as a distribution centre.

In order to exploit the export market and be able to offer the domestic market peace of mind  in terms of health an safety standards, growers will have to adhere to strict codes of  practice such as EurepGap in order to participate within these markets.

The Well-Pict European Marketing Trust is the first initiative to consolidate the soft fruit  industry in South Africa. It has been specifically constituted to be a non-profit growers'  organisation for farmers who wish to exploit the many new varieties of berries currently available in accordance with the Plant Breeders Act of South Africa. A three way grower relationship between the markets, the growers and the intellectual property right holders  now exists within one organisations.

Winter 2004