Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing is marking its 25th anniversary, highlighting the company’s role in South Africa’s apple and pear export sector since its establishment in 2001 following industry deregulation.
Owned by Two-a-Day and Ceres Fruit Growers, Tru-Cape now exports to approximately 108 countries and represents about 20% of South Africa’s apple and pear production.
Chairman Pieter Graaff said the company was established to create the scale needed to compete internationally.
“In global fruit markets, scale is essential. Tru-Cape brought that together. We grew from about 10 million cartons in our first year to more than 18 million today, and we are moving toward 20 million by 2028,” he said.
Former managing director Charles Hughes said the company focused early on building market relationships and matching products to specific markets.
“Success comes from matching the right product to the right market at the right price. Everything we built was designed around that discipline,” Hughes said.
According to managing director Roelf Pienaar, Tru-Cape has expanded beyond marketing into broader value-chain management, including production alignment, logistics, and market development.
The company has expanded its footprint in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the United Kingdom, supported by investments in logistics and distribution operations, including Link Supply Chain Management, GF Marketing in the Middle East, a distribution centre in Johannesburg, and Fruit Box in East Africa.
Pienaar said additional packing capacity at Ceres Fruit Growers and Two-a-Day is expected to support further export growth in the coming years.
