Perishables keep January volumes buoyant

January has seen unusually good volumes of perishable air exports this year, according to Ronel Mendes, national marketing manager of SAA Cargo. “Normally it’s a big rush of perishable exports over the December festive season, then a slack start to the New Year,” she told FTW. “But this January air exports have still been pumping. Not as much as December, but still unusually high volume nonetheless.” The fact that Gauteng has had exceptionally heavy rains during the first month of the year – bruising a lot of the potential fruit exports, and preventing a lot of the farms being able to pick-and-pack – has not had the major effect expected. This loss of airfreight volume has to a large extent been compensated for by Zimbabwe and Zambia running at full steam on fruit and flower exports during January, according to Mendes. “These two countries are part of our market as well,” she said, “because they feed their perishable exports to Europe through the OR Tambo International Airport (Ortia) in Johannesburg.” Mendes also noted that exotic foods (like lobsters) had also been very good, although fish has had a bit of a slack January because of international prices.