A Positive Trend in Stone Fruit Compliance during the seasonal period

Agri-Workforce Snapshot

Agriculture has remained a major contributor to employment, especially in rural towns and regions. To highlight the sector’s significant contribution to employment, we can mention that over 112 231 agri-workers are employed across the stone fruit supply chains.  The three most common agri-worker types for stone fruit are Temporary Males (31 907), Temporary Females (25 637), and Permanent Males (22 456). It is, however, very important to note that this is not representative of wider impact, such as families living on farms, office staff, logistics and other sections that may be impacted or benefit from primary agri-workers’ employment.

Third-party Audit Oversight and Between Audit Monitoring

When considering continuous improvement, it’s important to understand that it cannot be viewed as a once-off or a single action. Continuous improvement also does not mean that new aspects must be measured every time; rather, it refers to evidence of continuous implementation, risk mitigation, and consistent evaluation of practices. The Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) is an integral component of the SIZA Audit Process and Methodology and must be updated annually for the SIZA Social and/or Environmental modules, as it supports between-audit monitoring to ensure that compliance outcomes remain consistent during the audit validity periods and audit completion letters remain valid. This also supports the two- or three-year audit cycle that SIZA offers to incentivise and recognise suppliers who excel in their compliance journey.

During the current stone fruit season, average SAQ scores are 97,03% for Social SAQs and 88,30% for Environmental SAQs, indicating a strong commitment to compliance by stone fruit suppliers, even during non-audit years. Further improvement is expected as the ongoing season will still allow for several suppliers to update and complete their SAQs. It is worth noting that environmental compliance is fairly new for many suppliers, as social compliance began in 2008, whereas environmental compliance became a requirement only over the last three years. Despite this, suppliers have shown incredible commitment and dedication, resulting in positive outcomes for environmental compliance.

If one were to look at the social third-party audits conducted so far this season, because of audit validity periods, a total of 52 Social Audits were initiated for stone fruit suppliers, of which 81% have been completed in full. Of these, 71% have achieved Platinum status, 19% have achieved Gold status, and 5% have achieved Silver status. These results align with the significant improvement over time, as it is clear that more suppliers are integrating compliance into their daily business management systems.

On the environmental side, 54 audits have been initiated so far this season, of which 25% have been completed in full, and all have achieved Platinum status. This outcome speaks to the remarkable way suppliers recognise environmental impacts, soil practices, the value of good water stewardship, and other factors that benefit their business, such as energy and fuel consumption. It is worth noting that most of these suppliers were also part of the well-known capacity-building programme, called SIZA CARES, in preparation for the third-party audit, before they requested third-party audit firms to conduct their audits. This programme allowed suppliers to gain a better understanding of how to demonstrate environmental compliance, which, in most cases, is already implemented in practice on a daily basis.

These results highlight two noteworthy observations:

• • Social audits are generally completed more quickly than Environmental audits, as Environmental findings often require longer implementation periods for corrective actions; and

• • Environmental audits consistently outperform Social audits, largely because many Environmental requirements are already embedded within South African export-oriented agricultural practices.  

The most common findings during the Social audit tend to relate to occupational workplace management, risk mitigation, and safety management. This is not uncommon, as workplace health and safety make up a significant part of the social audit checklist, covering everything from signage to training to risk assessment practices. The top Environmental findings, on the other hand, tend to relate to the lack of starting to calculate a carbon footprint and to the absence of an emission reduction plan with set targets. Encouragingly, suppliers are responding proactively and using these findings to strengthen systems and long-term sustainability planning.  Impressively, if we look at turnaround times for correcting these findings, there is a clear indication of significant improvement compared to the previous season, reinforcing the sector’s commitment to timely and meaningful improvement.

Upon supplier application and in accordance with strict terms and conditions, SIZA will sometimes issue bridging letters to enable suppliers to continue the current season’s activities during the peak period while implementing corrective actions following a new audit conducted during the same period. So far this season, eight bridging letters have been issued to stone fruit suppliers, of which 75% have already completed their corrective actions in full. A positive trend in the current season and a strong indicator of effective communication and collaboration between auditors and suppliers is that no audit disputes were raised or uploaded to the MySIZA Platform.

SIZATrack360 Digital Programme

139 Stone fruit sites (88 production sites and 51 packing sites) are actively using the SIZATrack360 program, of which 11 sites have already integrated carbon footprint tools, tracking their input data and strengthening their environmental data and decision-making.

Moving forward

If you are interested in learning more about the stone fruit season, once the season ends, please sign up for the Stone Fruit Forum presented by SIZA on April 10^th, where we will provide a comprehensive overview of the compliance outcome for this industry.

Upcoming Training Webinars in support of continuous improvement and audit preparation will be presented on the following dates.

• • 26 January – SIZATrack360 Training

• • 09 February – Environmental SAQ Webinar

• • 09 February – Social SAQ Webinar

• • 24 February – Environmental Compliance Webinar

• • 25 February – Social Compliance Webinar

To conclude, we can mention that the 2025/26 stone fruit season so far reflects a high-performing, engaged, and improving sector. Strong audit outcomes, faster corrective actions turnaround time, and the growing use of digital tools all point to a positive compliance trajectory as the industry continues to strengthen its social and environmental foundations.