Outspan's Pienaar laments port storage restrictions

SOUTHERN AFRICAN ports used by the citrus industry do not have enough capacity to accumulate or collect fruit over long periods, says Roelf Pienaar, manager, shipping and port operations, Outspan International.
In Durban, where there is sufficient berthing capacity to handle 25 million cartons annually, the store capacity, where dwell time plays a major role, is a serious restricting factor when dwell time is high, he says.
The industry faces problems in this respect at its major export harbours, which are Durban, Maputo and Port Elizabeth, says Pienaar.
Due to a lack of cold stores in the production area, fruit cannot be accumulated there and 280 exporters from 250 packhouses pack and rail the fruit as it is picked. Then, he said, the ports with their limited facilities must receive, sort, cool and ship the fruit within a very short period of time. Fruit is received at harbours from a wide source of areas in this country.
This is much more complicated than the handling of deciduous through the Western Cape, where it is possible to almost 'order pick' fruit from the huge cold store buffer stock.
Outspan, he said, has countered this with its own 'custom made' pallet tracking system established 14 years ago.
Apart from rapidly moving fruit through the facility to maximise throughput, it is also essential to move fruit quickly because we are dealing with a perishable product.
We achieved this by using our own pallet tracking system, which highlights any fruit older than 14 days in the store.
In Durban, the total capacity of the facility is 14 000 pallets. Of this 4 000 pallet spaces are earmarked for the Japan sterilisation process, leaving space for 10 000 pallets for the rest.
Handling 20 000 pallets through a 10 000 capacity facility is a tough call, he said.