Horticulture
The deciduous fruit industry association, Hortgro, provided an update on the seaport logistics crisis this week. It was mentioned that numerous industries from several sectors under the National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC) are exploring options and vehicles to fund equipment and expertise from the private sector, and then recoup the expenses from Transnet. However, this is expected to be a rather difficult task due to the deteriorating financial position of Transnet. While concerns around the low availability and operational ability of the Rubber-Tyred Gantries (RTGs) are high, there are seven second-hand RTGs expected to arrive in South Africa around the middle of this month from the United States (US). This is expected to greatly alleviate the pressure at the Cape Town container terminal. The El Niño weather phenomenon has resulted in harsh weather conditions for Peru’s blueberry industry. This has resulted in a decline in Peruvian blueberry production and exports, which has driven blueberry prices to be relatively higher than a year ago. To circumvent the seaport crises that South Africa is currently facing, local blueberry exporters have turned to airfreight. According to BerriesZA, approximately more than half of the domestic blueberry crop has been flown to the EU instead of being shipped.
