Western Cape exporters may have endorsed the extension of the 21-day lockdown period until the end of April, but are increasingly concerned about the severity of certain restrictions that they say will do more harm than good.
While government has eased restrictions allowing for the movement of essential and non-essential cargo through the ports, only cargo deemed essential can be exported.
“Exports are the lifeblood of the Western Cape economy, not only bringing revenue but also creating employment,” said Terry Gale, chairman of the Exporters’ Club Western Cape (ECWC). “Currently there is much confusion as to the export of ‘essential goods’ as this has not been clearly defined, and as a result the acceptance of cargo differs from shipping line to shipping line.”
According to Gale every export container must be treated as ‘essential’ cargo in the current environment.
Earlier this month government extended a concession for wine producers to complete agricultural work around the current harvesting season to include the production, bottling and export of wine through South African ports.
Whilst this was a welcome move, Gale said wine exporters were not the only ones to consider.
“There are many manufacturers that are in the similar predicament as the wine industry was prior to the concession being made.”
Over and above the restrictions on exports, the stacks and export scheduling was also in a state of disarray.
“The situation is very concerning,” said Gale.
Over the Easter weekend, for example, the stack dates for vessels servicing the US was brought forward unexpectedly.
“The USA trade is the only market where South Africa has a balance of trade in our favour. Yet the stack for week 16 for a vessel en route to the US opened earlier over the Easter weekend, Saturday 11th, and closed on Easter Monday. With the US in desperate need of ‘essential’ products that we could provide, (in particular the State of New York) , taking cognisance of the transit time of 13 days for this vessel from Cape Town directly to Newark, exporters lost out on a golden opportunity to provide assistance to our second biggest trading partner.”
Containers that should have been on the vessel will now only go on the next sailing leaving Cape Town on April 24, on a vessel with a longer sailing time of 19 days.
Western Cape premier Alan Winde conceded that the extended lockdown was having a devastating impact on the economy.
“We are already starting to see its impact as businesses buckle under pressure and hundreds of thousands of people go hungry. This effect will be felt for years to come,” he said.
But the impact on countries where the coronavirus was not contained was as severe.
“This is what makes this crisis so unprecedented and why the response to it requires an approach that is strong, but also flexible so that we can stop the spread of this virus, but also be adaptive and innovative to keep our economy going,” said Winde.
He said he had approached President Cyril Ramaphosa on the subject.
“We need to adopt common-sense regulations that balance the objective of limiting human movement and gatherings (the scientific reason for the lockdown) with basic human liberties and the stimulation of economic activity to protect millions of jobs,” he said.
