Border efficiency speeds cargo transit

Namibia’s expanding table grape industry is providing South African logistics service provider, GoReefers with critical mass in order to expand its services. The company has opened offices at Vioolsdrift on the South African side of the Orange River border with Namibia, as well as at the Nakop (Namibia) and Ariamsvlei (South Africa) border towns on the road between Upington and Karasburg. The offices have been helping speed up transit through the border posts since they opened, according to GoReefers chief executive Delena Engelbrecht. “Our office at Noordoewer has been operational for some time and lessons learnt there have been used to expand to the other offices. We differentiate by placing a big focus on our IT systems and investment in staff through training. “By presenting documentation to the customs offices in a very user-friendly way, we have managed to reduce the dwell times at the border posts significantly,” says Engelbrecht. “We are continuing to focus on capacity building amongst our staff and are thrilled by the improvements we have made. One of our staff members is now studying with a bursary provided by the company as a result of this capacitybuilding programme.” GoReefers entered the Namibian market in 2004, when the first consignments of table grapes were moved from Ausssenkher to Cape Town. “Now we move over a thousand containers every season in what is an extremely important industry in Namibia. The table grape export business is growing and we are growing with it by always improving our systems to support the local industry,” she says. One of the most recent events was participating in trials for the export of table grape containers from Aussenkher through Walvis Bay. “While the trial was successful, it will be some time before this kind of operation will become viable from a cost and shipping availability point of view’” she says. The Aussenkher community has also been benefiting from the presence of GoReefers in the ‘Grape Valley’. “We have been supporting the local orphanage for many years and our annual Christmas party has become extremely popular,” she said.