Southern Africa’s perishable trade growth hinges on efficient logistics

As we pass the midpoint of 2026, the global food supply chain remains resilient in the face of major disruptions domestically and in global trade. But we must not take this resilience for granted, and it is vital that industry and government work together to deliver the regulatory changes needed for safe and secure growth across our food industry. Over recent years, southern Africa has experienced strong increases in perishable goods trade, a welcome trajectory for both economic strength and food supply resilience. This has been made possible by temperature- controlled logistics. We are proud that cold chain operators have responded to demand with investments in temperature-controlled facilities and fleets, specialist skills and future-facing operations to meet customers’ evolving needs. Over the past six months, the growth path has been knocked off course by the disruption and uncertainty experienced by supply chains throughout the world. Trade costs have increased dramatically, driven not just by tariffs, but by an energy shock, shortages of food and fertiliser and military conflict in the Middle East. Africa has once more found itself in the middle of a great power trade tussle, with US action and Chinese and European counteraction. These substantial changes are causing disruption and uncertainty, but also opening new opportunities, which nations are exploring through agreements such as South Africa’s new Stone Fruit Trade Protocol with China and a reframed trading relationship with both the United States and Europe. Southern Africa’s ability to seize emerging opportunities to grow the trade in perishable produce hinges on efficient and reliable logistics and practicable, effective border processes. While the region’s cold chain is successfully expanding, modernising and investing, border processes remain under resourced, cumbersome and inconsistent. Southern Africa can lead the way by embracing a new approach that utilises technology to remove the friction points in current controls and inspections. An approach that would strengthen oversight and streamline processes. By investing smartly in much-needed modernisation and digitisation, borrowing from global best practices and pushing ahead, African countries could build borders that make food trade safer, more resilient and far more efficient. The reality is that overly people-reliant and paper-based trade processes are a nineteenth- century solution to a twenty-first- century challenge. Harnessing digital technologies would reduce delays, boost trade and improve security and sovereignty.