Logistics ‘sabotage’ costs R1200 000 in export orders

Export successes
notwithstanding, Chris and
Gillian Ferraro are fuming
after their budding Western Cape
export agency lost international
contracts worth R1200 000 over
Transnet’s inability to deliver the
goods on time.
This after the couple, who set
up Cape Karoo Traders in the
platteland precinct of Rawsonville
two years ago, had expended time
and energy to secure a Thai order
for five 20-foot equivalents of wet
salted cow hides worth R800 000
only to see it torpedoed by the
crippling 17-day worker strike in
June.
A further order worth R400 000
for two 20-footers to China was
also subsequently cancelled due to
strike-induced delays.
“The customer had been
very patient, bearing with us
throughout the strike, but
eventually decided to call it a day.”
Zimbabwean-borne Ferraro and
her Italian husband Chris have
nonetheless bounced back by
securing more contracts, several
new, in Thailand and China and
vowed to take steps to safeguard
the company against crises beyond
their control, in light of the Transnet
debacle.
“The cancelled Thai contract was
to have been the first in what may
have become a significant ongoing
order,” said Gillian. “That is why I
am so irate and why I would like to
go to Transnet and beat them up.”
“We, as relative newcomers to
the export business, are up against
the odds, not least from Transnet, so
we realise doing business in South
Africa is bloody hard work.
“Firstly we had to contend with
the restrictions of the National
Credit Act, then the strong rand
affected our prices, and then just
when we were finding our feet
again, Transnet decided to strike for
three weeks and we couldn’t deliver
our orders.”
For those in the dark about
Rawsonville, it’s a small village in
the Goudini winemaking region, a
few hours’ drive from Cape Town.
Although they were the town’s
first English-speaking residents,
flying the Italian flag outside their
house and rooting for the Azzuri
(Italy’s national soccer team) in
the Fifa World Cup, they have
been warmly accepted into the
community.
The couple were fed up with the
drudgery of big city life – crime,
traffic, noise and so on – and
decided to sell up their Cape Town
southern suburbs home, acquire a
4x4 and head for the country.
A chance introduction to a
Pakistani businessman was to
change their lives forever, but the
couple admits it has been no walk in
the park.
Gillian worked for a good
number of years in the freight and
shipping industry, with the likes of
Renfreight, Mitchell Cotts, Fedex
and UPS and says “the industry was
kind to me.”
These days, they have their
routine cut out.
Cape Karoo Traders, a US$5 million a year business,
specialises in the export of wet
salted skins and hides to tanneries
in the Far East. This year their new
division, wines and edible oils, will
ship four million litres of varied
Breede Kloof Valley wines to China.
Chris, formerly in the aeronautical
engineering business and a qualifed
helicopter pilot, says one of the
latest signings is a R4.5 million
China order for 11 containers of wet
salted Dorpers and Merino sheep
skins that could well be the first of
at least six monthly shipments.
Various edible oils also feature on
the export agenda, with a Spanish
company sealing an order for
one million litres of soya bean oil
a year.
Given that most of the export
commodities (wine excluded)
emanate from Gauteng, Limpopo
and KZN, Durban is the main
port for export consignments. The
company’s regular shipping agents
kept them informed through regular
bulletins and updates on the strike.
“I used these updates to inform
my overseas customers – so
Transnet’s reputation went far and
wide,” said Gillian.
“We can only hope for better
times ahead otherwise I’ll find
myself drinking more wine than
I export!”