Citrus exports could soon
begin moving to China
as breakbulk rather than
in containers if recent
discussions conducted by the
Citrus Growers’ Association
in Beijing bear fruit.
A delegation headed
by CEO Justin Chadwick
described the talks as
“encouraging” – and he told
FTW that the lines and the
association hoped that this
mode of shipping would
be permitted by the 2017
season. This would allow
for co-loading shipments
to Japan, South Korea and
China.
“From a citrus
perspective, we were present
in China to determine
progress on the requests
to allow breakbulk reefer
vessels as an alternative to
containers,” said Chadwick.
Given that the rates
for shipping goods in
containers, particularly to
the Far East, is currently so
economical, the question
arises of why breakbulk?
“With the present pricing
regime,” said Brad Gower,
commercial director of
MSC, “the breakbulk reefer
mode can come in cheaper
than containers.”
And, he pointed out,
the CGA already had a
successful model shipping to
Europe by this mode. “They
may very well be basing
their Far East model on this.
“Also, with the size of
their export shipments,
there could be distinct
economies of scale with
reefer ships.”
Whatever, Gower added:
“It’s all very much a matter
of balancing the advantages
against the disadvantages.”
One area where this tactic
applied was related to the
control of infestation of the
export consignments.
“China lays down strict
protocols to control, for
example, infestation of
citrus fruit by the codling
moth,” Gower told FTW.
“On the pro side, reefer
ships can be sterilised in
one go, rather than the
tedious process of doing it
box by box for containerised
shipments.
“But, on the con side, if
a bulk vessel goes out of
protocol you lose the whole
cargo. With containers, if
one box goes out of protocol,
you only lose that one box.”
Given the overall balance,
Gower added, the lines must
have found that the scale
had swung in the direction
of reefer ships as opposed to
reefer boxes.
“However,” he said, “the
container always remains
the more effective mode in
terms of further movement
in the supply chain outside
of the port-to-port link.”
Asia, now taking 20.13%
of SA’s total global citrus
fruit exports, is one of
the three most dominant
destinations for these fruits.
The CGA was also pleased
with discussions on revising
the protocol for SA lemon
shipments to China. “Good
discussions were held with
technical experts working
on this request. Additional
information will be shared,
with an outside chance that
revision may be accepted
before the start of the
2017 citrus season,” Justin
Chadwick, CEO of the CGA
told FTW.
The delegation had also
travelled to Thailand, he
added, where it found that
SA citrus was beginning
to be recognised in that
market as a good balance
between quality and value.
“In Vietnam, we found that
Vietnamese importers have
developed a strong interest
in the quality of SA navel
oranges"
