Hellmann Worldwide Logistics (HWL) is set to assist farmers from a town located along the Orange River in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape with the distribution of their pecan nut, raisin and table grape exports.
According to Annelize Pelser, agriculture project manager at HWL, farmers in the region are experiencing issues with transport availability, making it difficult for produce to be exported.
“We are in the beginning of the process but the goal is to find options so the cargo can be transported to Europe in particular.
“The main problem in the region is that not many transporters have vehicles available for that route, so we are looking at using rail services to get the produce to the Durban or Cape Town port,” said Pelser.
Pelser said that although reports suggested that the recent drought had been a cause for concern pecan nut, raisin and table grape cultivation in the Northern Cape was flourishing.
She was also part of a recent conference in Kempton Park hosted by the Trans-Kalahari Corridor Group and attended by a gathering of South African freight sector representatives, all of them eager to hear what Namibian logistics has to offer.
One of the cross-border linkages highlighted at the conference was the Trans-Oranje Corridor (TOC) between the Port of Lüderitz and the Northern Cape.
Although its recently re-opened line is meant for manganese exports, Hippy Tjivikua, CEO of the Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG) which also oversees the Lüderitz line, said the WBCG had been approached by South African agricultural concerns operating on the banks of the Orange River keen to use the TOC for exporting fruit to Western Europe.
Tjivikua said South African ports were regularly congested and affected by labour-related issues, and that Namibia’s logistics network to its ports was ready to provide alternatives for South African exporters.
– Zoë van Rooyen
