Perishable industry to bank tidy R31.6m in rebates

The perishable export industry will be getting a tidy sum as the ports authority (TNPA) pays back the outstanding amount of the 2012/13 export container rebate of R1 billion. This, according to a complicated piece of arithmetic by the SA Ports Regulator, is a return to cargo owners of an amount of R121 million (R136m including interest up to May 31 this year). The regulator’s ‘record of decision’ (ROD) stated that the TNPA was to issue a credit note within 60 days of the publication of the ROD to applicable clearing agents. From them it will be credited up the supply chain to eventually end up in the coffers of the producer of the exports. Now, in a notice to all the members, the Citrus Growers' Association (CGA) executive, Mitchell Brooke, detailed just what this would mean. Exporters, he said, shipping 6 metre full containers will get an extra R115.14. That will bring the total rebate – including the amount already paid out in the 2012/13 rebate – to R855.14 per container. Those exporting in 12m containers (and any using the almost unheard of in SA 45ft/13.7m boxes) will receive R283.17 extra, making up a grand total of R2 103.17/ container. And Brooke also warned that it was the original exporters/producers who would have the onus thrust upon them to ensure that the applicable credit was reflected back to them as the rightful recipients of the balance of the rebate. Now Brooke very clearly told the citrus growers how they stood, but that still left the rest of the perishable products exporters unaccounted for. So, to find out just how much would be repaid in total to the whole industry, FTW approached the Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB) for data. We spoke to a very-helpful Lucien Jansen, the corporate affairs manager. And, after a speedy bit of piano playing on his PC, he came up with a figure of 112 425 containers exported by the entire SA perishable industry in the applicable tax year of 2012/13. But his data bank didn’t have this total broken down under 6m and 12m boxes. “The best I can tell you is it’s a mixture of the two,” he said. So we approached a highly reliable source of information, Mike Walwyn, the chairman of Cape Town’s Port Liaison Forum (PLF), and a man highly experienced in perishable exports. He described the 12m reefer (refrigerated) boxes as “superdominant” in the perishable export industry. “There are very few 6m boxes,” he said. “I’d say that probably around 111 000 of the boxes exported in 2012/13 were 12m.” Taking all our figures it’s an easy piece of arithmetic. • 111 000 X R283.17 = R31 431 870 • 1 425 X R115.14 = R164 075 • TOTAL… R31 595 945 So the perishable industry is due to be able to bank a tidy R31.6m as its outstanding rebate from 2012/13 exports – a goodly 23.2% of the total sum of R136m.