The citrus industry has predicted production growth in KZN, Swaziland, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Zimbabwe of 22% in five years’ time – which will make transportation by road unviable.
This is according to Mitchell Brooke, logistics development manager at the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA) of Southern Africa, who told FTW that during the 2017 citrus season, approximately 35 800 truck trips had been required to transport citrus fruits to the Durban port.
Pack houses in some areas could not source an adequate number of trucks in line with this production. Come the 2022 citrus season, it is estimated that the demand could surpass 43 000 truck trips, which is an additional 8 000 truck trips, per season.
Conversely, just 3 200 known containers of citrus were transported by rail from Tzaneen, Bela-Bela and City Deep (the latter by not powering the reefer units during transport) to Durban in 2017, a mere 3.5% of the total export volume.
The CGA and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) have agreed that expansion plans should take place within the City Deep area to meet the long-term volume projections.
“There is a lot of demand for rail transport, but there is simply not enough capacity currently,” Brooke said.
A TFR spokesman told FTW that they could not comment for now because their engagement with CGA had not yet concluded.
According to the CGA, the immediate projection shows an opportunity to transport 7 600 containers from five key rail sites using nine purpose-built reefer train units comprising 38 FEU wagons, a diesel generator and diesel tank on a 40-wagon set.
Areas such as Marble Hall, Groblersdal, Hoedspruit, Letsitele, Limpopo River border and Zimbabwe produce sufficient volume to warrant immediate rail development and expansion.
The growth in citrus exports by as much as 25% means this investment is urgently required.
Brooke said there had been a restructuring process undertaken at Transnet, and a key account manager appointed to deal specifically with fruit transportation.
He added that the strength of the rand to the US dollar was expected to have a detrimental impact on producers’ income, with an estimated 25-35% probable reduction in US currency earnings anticipated this year as a result.
Products exported to European markets fared slightly better and, thankfully, the fruit industry is not expected to be overly affected by the 1% VAT increase.
Increasing fuel levies, the impending carbon tax and incoming high-cube container legislation were all strengthening the already strong case for rail transport of fruit in South Africa he said.
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The strength of the rand to the US dollar could result in an estimated 25-35% reduction in US currency earnings this year. – Mitchell Brooke
