Early grape exports bring big cash dividend

£5 more per box before Christmas Ray Smuts LIKE THE explorers of old it’s about getting there first, so Cape Reefers did not spare the horses in pipping the competition to the post with the season’s first conventional reefer shipment of grapes to the United Kingdom. In so doing the vessel Snow Land, which departed Cape Town on December 3 with a cargo of 5 600 pallets of mainly seedless grapes from the Upington area, covered the normal 14-day voyage between Cape Town and Sheerness in 11 days and 17 hours. When fruit is involved, particularly the first of the season, speed is of the essence says Cape Reefers m.d. Gerhard van Heerden. “The UK market is important for our early seedless grapes and it is vital that we as a service provider ensure that southern African produce is landed early in the market to gain a competitive edge for the exporter and producer.” Cape Reefers’ first UK-bound grape shipments got underway the last week of November - about a week earlier than the previous season - with the vessel Tasman Start loading 3000 pallets at Fresh Produce Terminal . “As our business focuses on fruit alone we are constantly looking at sufficient access to markets, so getting there early is a great advantage. A pre-Christmas 4,5kg box fetched £12 compared to £7 after Christmas,” explains Van Heerden. The Upington grape seasonal crop, one of the most important from an export perspective, was initially expected to yield 17,1 million cartons but is now expected to produce 13 million cartons following two hail storms. Production last season stood at 14,07 million cartons.