The market potential of the South African apple industry : strategies and options

Abstract

This paper uses one of four possible areas of strategic market research, namely Trademaps2, to analyse the South African market potential for deciduous fruit. It isolates the apple industry to illustrate the application of Trademaps. An overview of the export performance within the apple industry is given. Export Trademaps are then utilised to analyse the trade flows and the market potential of South African apples on the world market. The Trademaps generated are based on trade data for the years 1995 to 1999 as reported by nearly 100 trading nations in the COMTRADE database of the United Nations Statistical Division. Possible strategies and options are suggested, given the results of the Trademap analysis. It is concluded that this analysis demonstrates the usefulness of Trademaps as a research tool to provide market information on new and existing markets.