Later, extended fruit season pushes up volumes

WEATHER ANOMALIES in Cape Town this year have turned traditional seasonal trends in the perishable industry upside down. “The season started late because of the weather and then it was extended,” Skyservices Cape Town branch manager Yusrie Jacobs told FTW. “The grape season, for example, usually slows down before Christmas – but we were still doing grapes well into February. And the same was true of stone fruit.” The inclement weather and resulting port congestion also saw a lot of seafreight cargo moving to air. “This presented no problems in terms of capacity because of our long-standing relationships with key carriers,” said Jacobs. “The stronger rand also helped to offset the higher airfreight costs.” The result, says Jacobs, has been better than expected volumes for Skyservices, particularly for airfreight cargo. “November, December and January were record months for us out of Cape Town with the first week and a half of February exceeding the full February total achieved in 2007,” he said. “We are one of the few perishable agents doing year-round business because of the varied range of commodities we handle – and that works to our benefit with the airlines.” Skyservices' 8 000m2 facility in Cape Town is one of the region’s best, according to Jacobs. “We are looking at increasing cold storage to 1500m2 in the year ahead.”