Non-traditional markets take up slack

Perishable volumes are not achieving the growth targets expected, according to Ian Fairlie, national reefer marketing manager for MSC. “We are not seeing much growth in the market at present. In fact the contrary is true with contracted growth compared to last year.” Fairlie told FTW the biggest markets leading the contraction were Europe and the West Mediterranean. But he said that despite a tough year for the perishable sector, the company remained positive as it was seeing growth in the non-traditional reefer markets. “There is some very welcome growth in the Far East and West Africa in particular,” he said. “In the West Africa reefer market we are seeing double-digit growth which is being spurred on by the growing middle class population in the region. From a geographic perspective South Africa is the best situated country to supply this growing market.” Another positive, said Fairlie, was the continuing trend towards containerised shipping. “We see more citrus cargo moving into containers, which is good news for future growth, opening up new services to shippers as volumes allow shipping lines to open new markets.” But as with any agricultural product, unseasonal weather conditions still remain the biggest challenge to the industry. “For this current season the industry has not been spared. Starting with the early season grapes there was some frost damage that negatively impacted volumes which are estimated to be at least 10% down,” said Fairlie. “Then there was also the big impact on the apple and pear segment where a large area of the Western Cape growing area was hit by unseasonal hail. This resulted in some of the farms experiencing losses of up to 70%.” Fairlie said the industry was also achieving stagnant prices while costs were rising above inf lation. “This in particular affects labour, fuel and electricity costs – all aspects to which the perishable industry is very exposed.” At the same time the current issue of citrus black spot remains a concern as it poses a challenge for the local perishable sector moving fruit into Europe. “All service providers have had to adjust to the new and stringent requirements for citrus being shipped into the EU,” said Fairlie. CAPTION Growing volumes allow shipping lines to open up new markets.