One of South Africa’s first citrus fruit shipments of the 2024 season is expected to arrive at the Port of Philadelphia in the USA this week.
The consignment of approximately 120 reefer containers, mostly containing clementines from Cape Town, will arrive on the box ship MSC Houston.
According to the marketer and shipper, Summer Citrus, further shipments of navel oranges and star ruby grapefruit will follow in weekly shipments until the end of October.
Summer Citrus CEO Suhanra Conradie said the group’s current shipping plan was to export 50% of the citrus via breakbulk and the balance as containerised cargo.
“We are serving one of the world’s most demanding markets, and adapting to the current state of the supply chain on any given day is a key factor of our business model. We have gained much momentum with our collaborative approach and intend to keep it going in 2024,” Conradie said.
“It’s all about matching up the available supply with the demand of the market. It's not one exporter shipping here. We are trying to put everybody together and make sure that our infrastructure and our supply chain caters for the supply and that we can really move food as fast as possible,” she added.
The group has been planning its export strategy for the season since February. It has been shipping citrus into the USA market for local growers for 25 years.
