New cold store streamlines Eastern Cape fruit logistics

RAY SMUTS
LAST WEEK saw the opening of a new, state-of-the art cold store in the Eastern Cape’s Sundays River Valley. A R45 million investment by Safmarine through its subsidiary SATI Container Services, the facility is owned by newly formed Addo Cold Storage. The Addo Cold Store Community Trust owns 49% of the company while FPT/SATI Container Services owned by SATI and empowerment partners Kagiso Trust, is a 50% shareholder. Due to the nature of its shareholder structure, a considerable share of the profits will be ploughed back into the community. The facility, close to Port Elizabeth and the new Coega port development, aims to provide integrated and cost-efficient cold store handling of fruit for export. Export fruit other than citrus will be moved through the store in due course. Brett Gray, chairman of SATI Container Services, says Safmarine’s involvement in Addo Cold Store is in line with the group’s stated intent to support the export fruit industry wherever it can add value by doing so. This is SATI’s second major investment in cold store facilities, the first with Cape Fruit Coolers in the Western Cape. “We believe,” says Gray, “that Addo Cold Store is ideally placed in the region’s citrus value chain. In the short while it has been operating it has demonstrated its ability to achieve and stimulate growth and wealth development in the region.” Fruit was previously exported from the Eastern Cape by road to cold storage facilities in the Mother City and other centres before being packed for export. This was not an ideal scenario as fruit was not always promptly and adequately stored for transport, often resulting in spoilt product and added transport costs.