Opinion | Fruit sector ripe for harvesting benefits of the fourth industrial revolution
Opening an exhibition on the fourth industrial revolution at parliament recently, science and technology minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane stressed that SA plans to use the 4IR opportunities to deal with poverty, unemployment and inequality — but also that the country needs new skills for the industries and markets that will emerge.
Our research shows that key technologies in the global fresh-fruit industry that must be leveraged by local producers to remain relevant include electronic digital platforms and internet of things, biotechnology, and sorting and cold storage equipment. Collectively, these offer technological solutions to SA’s key challenges in the fruit industry.
With delays at the main ports expected to increase as fruit export volumes grow, integrated digital platforms that link local producers’ in-house systems to ports, logistics companies and shipping lines are crucial to foster better planning and faster movement of fruits. Digital solutions that reduce the cost of logistics and ease the export process could increase the value of exports and help new players to enter export markets.
SA in recent years, however, lost its lead position in controlled-atmosphere cold-storage technologies, mainly because of limited government funding and lack of private sector investment. At the same time, limited research and skills to develop new sorting technology mean that most producers import such equipment at escalating costs: a 10-lane piece of sorting equipment cost about R80m-R100m million in 2018.
Ensuring fruit supply chains that can compete successfully on the world market calls for a systems integration by industry role players. The CCRED research shows that the local industry’s adoption of technologies has been driven largely by the private sector. If policymakers are serious about leveraging technologies, partnerships and alignment of priorities between the government and the private sector are necessary.
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