Fruit industry welcomes Port of Cape Town recovery plan

Transnet has implemented a recovery plan to tackle a fruit export backlog at the Port of Cape Town following pressure from a coalition of industry stakeholders.

The local fruit industry suffered potential losses of around R224-million during November when a reefer ship had to depart on November 30 without 350 fruit-laden containers. The short-shipment was due to severe winds during November which resulted in the ship falling behind schedule, and leaving before being fully loaded.  

“Given the seriousness of the situation and the proximity to peak (fruit export) season, the industry groupings (FPEF, HORTGRO and SATI) escalated these concerns directly to the Transnet Group CEO, Adv. Michelle Phillips,” the groupings said in a joint statement circulated to affected industry stakeholders. 

“We also included the offices of the ministers of Transport (Min Barbara Creecy) and Agriculture (Min John Steenhuisen). Our letter highlighted the operational challenges, the lack of contingency execution, the need for urgent intervention, the negative impact on the fruit industry and the risk to South Africa’s export reputation.

TNPA’s  structured recovery and wind mitigation plan outlines several operational mitigation measures, including: 

• 18 new RTGs deployed, with 6 RTGs dedicated to the reefer stack, enabling operations in winds up to 90 km/h  
• Weekly weather-forecast alignment with shipping lines for planning  
• Rail uplift increased to 2 trains per day, targeting 3 per day  
• Reach stackers deployed to continue stack operations during high winds  
• Overtime resourcing to maximise available teams  
• National specialists deployed for Navis, planning, and truck booking systems  

Meanwhile industry has committed to joint communication with Transnet to ensure factual alignment, and to detailed stats to accurately measure progress of the recovery plan.   

Exporters Western Cape chairman Terry Gale commended all stakeholders for their close cooperation: “As EWC we endorse these ongoing engagements, although there are times we feel Transnet needs to be more pro-active than re-active. We must utilise Belcon (inland terminal) to its optimum & ensure the rail link to the terminal is running the max no of trains daily, even if it means prioritizing rail over pax trains, as we are in crisis mode & act accordingly,” Gale said.