Ongoing port congestion is wreaking havoc on fruit exports. According to an industry stakeholder, who preferred to remain anonymous, some fruits have not been exported at all, while others have arrived in the market late because of South Africa’s chaotic port situation. “The congestion at the harbours is having a significant negative effect on the shipping schedules,” he said, adding that shipping lines were frequently having to change schedules in an effort to make up for time lost as a result of the chronic congestion. “We are feeling these schedule changes, which have resulted in fruit leaving the country later than intended and arriving in the market late – and at the same time as exports from competing markets.” He said shipping lines were more frequently choosing to omit their scheduled port call to make up for lost time. “This has had an effect on the availability of empty reefers at times, which has put us under some equipment pressure.” Mike Walwyn of supply chain solutions company Nexlog confirmed that the congestion at the ports was concerning. “We have had containers in the stack in Cape Town, while no less than three vessels omitted their scheduled call at the port. “Eventually, the boxes were moved to Durban on a coast-wise vessel, only to have the next planned vessel omit Durban as well.” With the products then being too old for export, a decision was made to pull them from the export market and sell them locally. “Extracting containers from the port has also taken several days,” said Walwyn. Over the past week, the situation was exacerbated when the Navis terminal operating system at Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) experienced problems. One freight forwarder said several consignments had missed delivery deadlines as they could not be picked up because the Navis system was down. “This has resulted in demurrage, storage and futile trip costs,” he said, adding that the fruit industry could ill-afford any delays. The country is currently in the peak of its citrus export season. According to a communiqué from TPT, the system was affecting both internal and external users, and the only way to restore optimal performance was to reduce the load on the system. This saw Navis access being turned off for all external users for a period of time. By the end of the week, TPT had implemented a solution to the system challenges.
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The country is currently in the peak of its citrus export season.