The perishable industry in South Africa is alive and well with increased volumes shipped out of the country in May thanks to a rise in grapefruit and lemon exports. According to Ian Fairlie, national reefer marketing manager for MSC South Africa, the perishable industry had a perfect storm at the start of the citrus season. “Unforecast growth put a tremendous amount of pressure on all the role-players to plan and accommodate the increased volumes, but it was handled incredibly well and successfully executed.” He said exporters, hauliers, cold stores and shipping lines found themselves having to find quick solutions to the large amount of fruit that had to be moved. “The grapefruit and lemon export volumes were much stronger than previous seasons. At the same time the South African rand weakened which resulted in the volumes exported into Europe during May being more than 23% up month-onmonth.” Fairlie said this was good news for the country’s fruit exports. “We are seeing some very real growth markets for South African products and the country is ideally situated to service these markets that include the Middle East and the Far East,” he said. “Traditionally South African perishable products have not been exported to markets in the Far East and Middle East, however this is a trend that has changed over the last couple of years.”
