Big growth in Taiwanese volumes

Perishable volumes have been up this year on a year-on-year basis for Transmarine Logistics, according to branch manager in Cape Town AJ Munian. “The overall Far East market has grown,” he told FTW, “and we have seen a growth commensurate with this. We had about 15% annual growth in 2008.” The company’s main products are citrus out of Durban and Port Elizabeth and apples and pears out of Cape Town. “We are waiting for the end of the year and the start of the plum season next,” Munian said. One specific area of note for Transmarine has been the Taiwanese market. “We have seen big growth there,” Munian said. And a big advantage has been the company’s ability to comply with the special cold treatment legislated for Taiwan’s perishable imports – where the temperature is reduced to specified levels during transit. “The market we have been able to develop by including this service has shown very good growth,” Munian said. India, China and Vietnam are three of the areas of future potential, he added – although acknowledging that India is a highly protected market, and China has its own development difficulties. “But there have certainly been signs of growth in Vietnam, and we are therefore watching it closely,” Munian said. “The volumes into the two other markets have yet to materialise in a big way, but we definitely want to get into them in the future.”