South Africa's thriving export industry for perishable goods has been a significant contributor to the economy, but the global pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges that are driving changes in the industry. As a result, says Jaco Vlok, director of sales at DSV, the perishables export sector in South Africa is now facing a range of challenges that must be addressed to move forward successfully. “The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains, resulting in logistical challenges that have impacted the export of perishable goods from South Africa,” he said, highlighting the importance of resilient and adaptable logistics solutions that can respond to changing market conditions and unforeseen disruptions. “Freight capacity has been a major issue since Covid-19. Perishables are typically transported on commercial airlines which all but stopped during the worst months of the pandemic when airfreight rates escalated. They have yet to fully stabilise. The evolving e-commerce market and continued growth of online shopping has increased the demand for airfreight capacity, and contributed to pushing up airfreight rates.”Another ongoing concern impacting the market was load-shedding. “It is an issue for everyone in the industry, affecting everything from cooling of produce to irrigation of crops – and additional diesel costs. Ours is a 24/7 business and electricity outages for up to eight hours are extremely costly,” said Vlok.DSV operates a 2 000-square-metre on-airport facility at OR Ta mbo International Airport in Gauteng and a purpose-built 1 700sqm warehouse just outside Cape Town International Airport that supports tailor-made, end-to-end import and export solutions for fruit, vegetables, f lowers, meat, fish and other perishables. While some of South Africa’s products are seasonal fresh meat (lamb and beef ), processed fruit salad and Cape f lora, exports take place all year round. According to Vlok, the high season for f lower markets in the European Union, United Kingdom, Middle East and Far East is from August to February, with the highest volumes in October for the All Saints’ Day on November 1. Fruit exports, particularly stone fruit, are busiest between September and December.“Despite the relative health of the export markets, the industry must deal head-on with the challenges we face or it could hamper export growth in future.”He said security protocols had become exponentially stricter.
