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.