South African cherry producers have secured access to China for the first time after Agriculture Minister Willie Aucamp and Sun Meijun, minister of the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC), signed a market access protocol in Beijing on Tuesday, 8 September.
The protocol was signed during the 9th Sanitary and Phytosanitary Ministerial Meeting. Aucamp described the agreement as a milestone in South Africa’s agricultural trade relationship with China.
“This achievement is record-breaking as it is the first time that two market access protocols have been signed with China within a year,” he said. “We truly appreciate China’s efforts to speed up our market access requests for South African agriculture products.”
A market opening at the right time
China is the world’s largest cherry importer. It imported about 586 900 tons in 2025, valued at US$3,3 billion (about R52,8 billion), according to the Department of Agriculture. Chile supplies more than 95% of China’s cherry imports, with the US, Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand sharing most of the balance.
Market access comes during rapid expansion in the local industry. Hortgro said South African cherry production had risen 54% over two seasons, from 3 300t in 2024/25 to a projected 5 100t in 2025/26.
The planted area has increased from 262ha in 2016 to 802ha, spread across 34 growers and 45 farming units, most of them in the Ceres region of the Western Cape. About 30% of the orchards are not yet in full production.
“Access to China arrives just as the industry’s newer plantings, including varieties such as Cheery Nebula and Cheery Cupid, begin bearing fruit at scale,” Jacques du Preez, Hortgro CEO said in a media release on 8 September.
South Africa’s timing provides a potential advantage. Its harvest follows a similar Southern Hemisphere export calendar to Chile’s, but local exporters can reach China about three weeks before Chile enters the market.
Hortgro said this gave the country a “global competitive advantage”, although South Africa would initially remain a small supplier by volume.
The industry’s export base reached 488 000 equivalent cartons in 2025/26, up 111% year on year. Exports to Asia rose 344%, with Singapore, Cambodia and Malaysia accounting for 69% of that trade, while the shares of the UK and Middle East declined.
Quality will determine the opportunity
In conversation with Farmer’s Weekly, Gysbert du Toit, executive director of Du Toit Group, welcomed the additional destination. “The more options we have, the better,” he said.
“The impact will be greater for very early cherries, before Chile enters the market.”
He cautioned that access alone would not guarantee success. “China is highly sensitive to and focused on quality (a minimum size of 28 mm+), taste, appearance and, importantly, the firmness of the cherries. If you supply poor quality fruit, the market will punish you.”
Logistics would also restrict the initial opportunity.
“Sea freight is not currently an option; only airfreight is available, which makes the cherries expensive,” Du Toit said.
“Once the first Chilean sea-freight shipment arrives in China, we will struggle to compete using airfreight unless we can differentiate ourselves on quality. This is not a short-term win, but rather a long-term opportunity.”
Small supplier in a highly competitive market
South Africa accounted for only 0,27% of Southern Hemisphere cherry exports in 2025/26. Chile, by comparison, shipped 98,762 million equivalent cartons to China alone last season.
Chile’s cherry orchards expanded from 41 000ha in 2018 to 78 000ha in 2025, almost 100 times South Africa’s planted area.
Hortgro said South Africa would therefore enter China as a minor supplier, but added: “The industry’s growth trajectory, production up 54% over two years, exports up 111% in a single season, and 30% of orchards still not at full production, suggests a supply base with genuine room to scale into a market of China’s size.”
The Department of Agriculture expects the new market to encourage further investment in cherry production and support about 600 new jobs. It said the agreement advanced efforts to broaden agricultural trade under the two countries’ economic partnership framework.
Blueberry talks at an advanced stage
Aucamp also met China’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Zhang Zhu, on Monday, 7 September. The two discussed continued co-operation on biosecurity, including foot-and-mouth disease, and further market access for South African agricultural products.
“There is more to come between South Africa and China, now that the negotiations to grant market access for South African blueberries to China are at an advanced stage,” Aucamp said.
China has submitted a draft blueberry import protocol for South Africa’s consideration. Aucamp asked the South African team to fast-track its inputs and negotiations, with the aim of finalising the protocol before the end of 2026.
