Schedule glitch results in massive loss for fruit exporter

FORECASTS are dicey at
the best of times, especially
where weather-prone
fruit is involved. Even so
the apple and pear sector
anticipates next year’s crop
could be up to 10% higher
than the previous year in
those areas which have not
been affected by frost and
flooding.
Charles Hughes, CEO of
Tru-Cape, which exports
33% of all South African
apples and pears to overseas
markets, however warns that
it may not be an altogether
easy ride for producers.
He believes the exchange
rate could play a negative role
while some overseas markets
are expected to go into
recession and shipping rates
are up quite substantially.
Tru-Cape, a major
exporter of apples and pears
to Capespan in the UK and
Europe, cannot stress enough
the importance of liner
schedule integrity, particularly
for an industry producing a
time-sensitive product. The
company uses a variety of
carriers, conventional and
containerised, to Europe and
containerised vessels only to
the Far East.
To illustrate his point,
he recalls: “One of the lines
suddenly changed its route
and we went from 25 days’
to 35-40 days’ shipping
– ridiculous.
“We cannot afford to keep
fruit at sea so speed into the
market is very important.
Because of that particular
shipping line, which we shall
not be using any longer, we
were forced to pick up the
cost as we were late onto
the market with our product
and entered into a low-price
slump, costing us about
US$4-US$5 a carton.”