Rail makes welcome return to fruit terminal

RAIL HAS made a welcome return to the
Maputo fruit terminal, while there are signs of a
local swing from containers back to breakbulk,
says FPT Maputo general manager Paulo Franco.
“We haven’t seen railway trucks here for
donkeys’ years. It is good to see them back and
they are working well,” he says.
The rail trucks helped push up exports
through FPT to new records.
At its peak, the terminal had 11 000 pallets
in stock, while towards the end of the season it
handled four vessels in two days.
In September, the 6 000 pallet Snow Crystal
became the biggest reefer to call on Maputo in
at least ten years.
New markets are also being opened up, with
two shipments to Russia. “We expect to load
ten to 12 vessels next year for Russia, which is
one of the fastest-growing markets for citrus in
the world,” he says. “The market has been there
for some time, but Maputo had never been used
before. We put the numbers together to prove
that Maputo is the right port from which to
support that market”.
Maputo is the “natural” export gateway
for fruit from Mpumalanga, Northern Natal,
Swaziland and Limpopo with many producers
less than an hour’s drive away, says Franco.
Vessels supplying the Middle East are able to
do a round trip in seven days, while the port also
serves the Far East, India and Europe.
Demand for South African fruit is outstripping
the supply of reefer slots on container ships
operating out of the region, which has led to the
greater use of chartered breakbulk vessels, he
says.
This trend, particularly towards the end of the
season when the bulk of the fruit is delivered, is
expected to continue until the bigger container
vessels start calling regularly on Maputo.