Citrus shippers sending fruit to China have been warned to make sure there are containers available for their produce as the backlog following last year’s outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) is resulting in a build-up of unprocessed boxes - with ripple effects across the freight sector.According to Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA), the big problem at the moment is that the ports in China aren’t working.Speaking at a national budget presentation hosted by Absa AgriBusiness last week, Chadwick said: “There is an incredible number of containers and huge congestion around the ports which will take some time to clear.“It’s a big concern for us because if it takes too long and containers can’t be repositioned, we could find that China’s ports could run out of equipment.”It’s the reason why, Chadwick warned, exporters should be sure that there were containers available before they started shipping.Commenting on a panel remark that there were about 250 000 South African mandarins heading East at a time when Covid-19 was wreaking havoc across global markets, Chadwick said thatfigure was closer to 500 000.Considering that South Africa already exports around two million tonnes of citrus every month, it demonstrates why it is so important to do the necessary reefer capacity preparations as the country’s expected citrus output is predicted to grow by at least 25% over the next three years.“That’s why it was comforting to hear during the budget speech that money (R495.1 million) has been set aside to promote exports from the agricultural sector,” Chadwick said.However he believes that the billions ploughed into SA A should be invested in the ports because they are money spinners.Profitability alone though, Chadwick remarked, was not enough to improve the efficiency of South Africa’s ports.“The big unknown is labour."Considering that finance minister Tito Mboweni’s biggest budget surprise was slashing the government’s wage bill by R37.8 in the next financial year, labour’s response that South Africa’s civil servants will not accept this could very well prove Chadwick’s reservations right – unfortunately.