With the perishable season in full swing, the airfreight industry is experiencing a notable surge in congestion on the export side, leading to concerns about the timely and efficient transport of fresh goods to international markets. Cape Town, in particular, is grappling with a significant increase in export volumes, making it increasingly challenging for businesses to secure cargo space at reasonable rates.According to Jacob Pretorius, SACO CFR general manager for airfreight, export capacity has simply not been able to keep up with the demand. "On the import side, September marked the fourth consecutive month of rising import shipments compared to the same period in 2022, signalling a stark departure from the conditions observed earlier in the year."He said the SACO CFR team had been putting in significant effort to improve its import products. Pretorius emphasised the importance of logistics operators consistently enhancing their service offerings to meet customer expectations in the current business environment.He said as the industry headed into the end-of-year peak season, congestion was likely to remain a persistent challenge in the foreseeable future. "Over the past few months, airlines have been raising fuel surcharges in step with the increasing oil prices, which naturally will keep pushing up freight rates. We anticipate this trend to persist into the first quarter of 2024."Pretorius pointed out that as long as the exchange rate stayed high and ocean rates remained as low as they had been for the past nine months, the airfreight sector would continue to face difficulties."What is exciting is that we are currently working on two new products. Although we can't share details about these services just yet, it's important to note that we have never offered them before, and we aim to introduce them in the first quarter of next year.”
