Durban stands to lose citrus to Maputo

There is a determined effort being made
by the Citrus Growers’ Association
(CGA) of Southern Africa to redirect
a lot of the citrus cargo currently
being shipped out of Durban to
the Mozambique port of Maputo,
according to Mitchell Brooke, logistics
development manager of the CGA.
“Maputo Port is considered a strategic
development area for citrus exports
from the northern region,” he told
FTW. “High production, transport and
shipping cost increases are imminent
for 2011, but the northern region is
better aligned to Maputo geographically
to reduce the cost of transportation.
“Maputo port can potentially facilitate
over 400 000 pallets of citrus fruits, but
currently only 60 000 pallets are routed
through the port. The extra distance to
the Durban port is costing the northern
region an additional R80 million in
transport charges, and an average
of R3.00 per carton
can be saved by
using Maputo.”
Looking at the geographical
production of southern African citrus
in terms of Maputo, Brooke added, the
areas of Malelane, Jeppes Reef, Karino,
Nelspruit, Hazyview, Hoedspruit and
Letsitele are deemed to be the Maputo
Citrus Corridor.
“This,” he said, “is due to the reduced
cost of transport to the Maputo port
over the Durban port for these areas.
They should be deemed to be the
strategic growth areas to attract cargo to
the Maputo port.”
The Maputo citrus corridor produces
0.6 million tonnes of export citrus
annually, according to the 2010 estimate
– which constitutes 63% of the entire
northern region’s citrus production.
“If the Far East (excluding Japan and
steri markets), Middle East, Europe,
UK, Russia and Mediterranean markets
were serviced on direct calls from
Maputo, it is evident that there could
be a demand to move 0.5 mt of export
citrus from Maputo annually.
The Maputo Citrus Corridor is
transporting, on average, an extra
480 kilometres to Durban compared
to Maputo.
The northern region transports
14.75 m truck kilometres to Durban and
only 0.5 m truck kilometres to Maputo.
“It has been determined that this is
what is costing the northern region’s
growers that R80 m each year,” Brooke
said. “Looking at an overview of the
comparison between loading a container
in Maputo vs Durban, it is evident that
due to the current exchange rate (R6.7/
USD), the Maputo port is currently a
favourable option to load containers –
with Europe and Russia to be serviced
weekly by the break-bulk options,
which are extensive.