19 January 2024
In orchards and packing houses, productive efforts are under way to get pome fruits into cartons in time for export, but Cape Town harbour is a stumbling block that is putting producers’ finances under pressure.
Estimates for this year’s apple and pear exports look promising. An improvement in volumes compared to last year is already anticipated – the fruits just need to be exported, and as in previous seasons, Cape Town harbour is struggling to get it right.
“Logistics have become a huge problem. The Cape and Durban harbours are full, and from an export perspective it’s a significant stumbling block to export fruits in a shipping container,” says Roelf Pienaar, managing director of Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing.
The company markets about 18 million cartons of pome fruits, making it the largest apple and pear exporter in South Africa.
Pienaar added: “In 2022, shipping costs soared due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They normalised last year but currently we are facing significant costs to transport containers to Gqeberha to export to Europe. This comes at a cost of R30 000 per container.
“Although the outlook for apple and pear exports seems promising, the industry will have to incur unnecessary transportation costs to get our products to the harbours and exported.”
Conrad Fick, marketing director of Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, said: “This is a blow to producers. The market is there, the fruits look good, but we must be able to get it to the market.” According to him, the additional transportation costs can amount to €1,40-€1,50 (R28,85-R30,90) per carton.
‘Economic sabotage’
These logistical problems in exporting fruit have left producers frustrated, and there have been threats to take legal action against Transnet for the losses the industry may suffer due to Cape Town harbour’s inefficiency.
Hortgro says the industry is doing everything in its power to assist Transnet but warns that delays due to the company’s inefficiency could harm the industry’s competitiveness in the international export market. It described it as economic sabotage.
According to Transnet, wind was the main cause of most delays at the harbour in December. Andiswa Mesatywa, responsible for Transnet’s corporate affairs in the Western Cape, confirmed to African Farming that 183 hours were lost in December due to inclement weather – equivalent to eight days.
Expecting a larger harvest
According to Hortgro, export apple volumes could increase by 7% due to young orchards coming into production and favourable weather. The forecast for pear export volumes is more moderate, with volumes expected to grow by 1% compared to the previous season.
“From Tru-Cape’s perspective, our volume will increase more than the industry’s expected increase of 6% for apples and 1% for pears,” says Pienaar. “We suffered significant losses in Ceres last year due to hail and we believe those tons will return this year. So, we look forward to more normal volumes this year.”
Tru-Cape could not market nearly 2 million cartons of fruit last year due to the hail that hit Ceres.
According to Calla du Toit, a pome fruit farmer from Ceres and procurement manager at Tru-Cape, the fruit size looks good overall.
“We expect a harvest of quality, and there is also good demand for apples and pears,” he says. “We are also optimistic about the possibility of the Thai market opening soon for South African apples, providing good opportunities for Royal Gala, Pink Lady, and Fuji.
“We are concerned about logistics, as there are several cultivars that need to be harvested and loaded in the coming weeks.”
Attie van Zyl, managing director of the Two-A-Day group in Grabouw, says summer pear volume is similar to last year’s harvest.
“The exception is Bon Chretien, which is about 29% more. This is due to a change in the minimum size accepted. Abate Fetel’s production is also about 25% higher but that is thanks to the cyclical nature of this cultivar. There are also indications that Forelle volume may be slightly higher than last year.”
Regarding apples, Van Zyl’s estimate also aligns with last year’s harvest. “The standout is Bigbucks, with many young orchards currently coming into production. The volume will, therefore, be more than 50% higher than last year.”
However, Panorama Golden apples seem not to be experiencing a good volume year and are estimated to be about 20% smaller.
