Fruit South Africa, the Dutch embassy and the Dutch Development Bank have joined forces with Transnet to establish the viability of various road to rail proposals.
The fruit industry in South Africa is currently highly road-reliant.
“To get the strategy in place, we need to have a very good view of the infrastructure that is required,” says Mitchell Brooke, Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa’s logistics development manager.
“In terms of container terminals, we need to see a radical change in the way they do business. If we're going to get perishable products onto the trains, it’s going to require dedicated areas in the ports that receive special focus.
“We can’t have trains sitting in the ports for six or seven days, as is currently the case. Trains need to move in and out within six hours at a maximum. There has got to be a good interface with Transnet Port Terminals, which enables the strategy to take place,” he believes.
“From inland areas, we need to see intermodal hubs as we have in Gauteng, such as City Deep or Tambo Springs. These could be the enablers, the means of getting a formidable intermodal hub going. We also require specialised cold stores, where fruit comes down to Gauteng, is packed into containers and is then railed down to the port terminal in Cape Town.”
Brooke said the country needed an anchor project that would tap into the entire northern area of the country, and enable fresh produce to arrive at a central hub before being moved by trains to the ports.
“That won’t infringe on any existing projects in the north of the country, as we’ll be able to support those with excess containers." He said the road to rail strategy for the fruit industry was all about costs and efficiencies and providing a better cold chain.
