Big opportunities for flowers as
airfreight capacity dwindles,
writes Ray Smuts
THE first shipment of South African pineapples utilising the new-to-South Africa Cargofresh Technologies Controlled Atmosphere has passed the test with flying colours - good news indeed for Kuehne and Nagel which has landed an export contract with an FOB value of more than R22 million as a result.
Brett Moore, perishable exports manager for KN, confirmed last week that leading Eastern Cape ÔCayenneÕ variety pineapple grower Golden Pines will be using Cargofresh CA exclusively for the next three years, while Cargofresh of Hamburg has also signed a three year contract with KN. (Cargofresh uses KN exclusively worldwide)
An agreement is expected to be clinched later this month between Seatrade and Cargofresh, in terms of which the former will lease boxes from the latter, KN taking responsibility for all logistics and marketing to fill them.
According to Moore, previous pineapple exports subjected to CA technology other than Cargofresh had been beset by problems of mould, rendering the product unsaleable. ÒWhere Cargofresh is superior to other CA is that it achieves and maintains the correct nitrogen levels sooner.Ó (Refer FTWÕs Cape Town supplement of March 2001)
The first Golden Pines shipment of 1 500 cartons left Cape Town for Germany aboard the Seatrade vessel Prince of Seas on February 17 and the technical report, just to hand from Cargofresh product manageress Michaela Steineker, indicates the fruit could not be faulted.
Her report on the trial shipment of 3 480 cartons of plums for Edeka Fruchtkontor of Hamburg and 13 cartons of nectarines shipped on behalf of Dole South Africa, Cape Five Export and DuToit Vrugte, is awaited, but Moore is confident it will be equally positive.
The Golden Pines contract calls for KN to handle the shipping of 580, 40-foot, containers with an FOB value of R22,4 milion.
Moore says KN recently dispatched from Cape Town to Shanghai an Oceanic trial shipment of grapes under Cargofresh CA and that the withdrawal from South Africa of several international air carriers holds exciting possibilities for flowers to be shipped by sea under CA, at considerably cheaper rates.
