Citrus exporters present plan for rail shift

Confidence in rail as a transport mode needs to be restored amongst SA citrus exporters. This must be followed by increased use of rail by growers, and the creation of a chain of inland fruit hubs on main lines, says the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA). “The international trend for fruit exporters using rail is to abandon branch lines in favour of main lines. In South Africa the branch lines don’t have the infrastructure capacity to handle containers, and more product is shipped in containers,” Mitchell Brooke of the CGA told FTW. In a plan presented to growers during the CGA’s annual February and March road shows, growers responded favourably to a return to rail if a network of inland fruit hubs could be implemented where product could be unloaded from trucks and packed for rail and subsequent sea transport. “We have identified that there is potential for the Northern and Central Limpopo regions (Letsitele, Tzaneen, Tshipise and Wiepe) and Zimbabwe to consolidate inland at Polokwane and the Eastern Limpopo (Hoedspruit), Mpumalanga and Northern Swaziland regions to consolidate inland at Malelane. “Sundays River in the Eastern Cape and Citrusdal in the Western Cape are also areas where there may be potential to implement rail solutions using a multimodal approach,” Mitchell told FTW. He said the depots where fruit from a region would be consolidated would not only increase the use of rail transportation for efficiency benefits but also had potential to reduce the high landside cost of transportation, handling and storage of citrus products. The plan has been presented to Transnet Freight Rail which is expected to participate in a new round of road shows to promote the depots.