DESPITE A hesitant start to the citrus season in May an upsurge during June has provided hope that, while volumes may not reach the
numbers originally forecast, exports will at least maintain the same levels of the 1999 season.
The consensus that farmers in the Western Cape face a bleak future has serious consequences, with provincial government agricultural minister Gerrit van Rensburg reckoning that 50% of all deciduous and citrus farmers in the province are doomed to go bankrupt within five years unless the market shows drastic improvement.
A report by the provincial task team formed to investigate the economic impact of the crisis and look for solutions was due to report back last week This past season SA exported some 68.5 million cartons of deciduous fruit, which was well down on the 75.8 million cartons of the 1998/99 season.
Citrus and sub tropical fruit prospects are somewhat rosier and latest estimates indicate that volumes will be similar to those for the 1999 season - 58.7 m cartons of citrus and 16.2 million of subtropical fruit.
Fruit growers had however been hoping for a considerable increase in volume over last year.
According to Anton du Preez, managing director
of reefer major Anlin Shipping and SA agent for Seatrade, the unseasonal rains delayed colouring and citrus levels in the fruit, and this resulted in a disappointing start to the season for May.
By mid-June though a sudden surge caught most exporters by surprise, leading to a shortage of available reefer ships, but within 3 weeks additional vessels had been brought in. Du Preez now says he is confident that volumes this year will be similar to 1999.
We'll touch wood and hope for the best because there's still a long way to go, but it's not all doom and gloom. It's true that farmers in SA are in trouble. When you are part of the soil it teaches you to be modest and thankful. Nevertheless we are quietly confident of a good citrus season.
Trevor Law, SA general manager for Cool Carriers, another major reefer shipping line, said Cool Carriers would have had a total of 6 ships operating from South African ports during July but would then revert to 4 per month. In addition the line also had 3 reefers on charter to Capespan during June - two operating to the Mediterranean and one to Japan.
We're running a service of one ship every week but in June we had to extend this by 5 additional vessels, making for a total of 9 vessels then on the service, he told FTW.
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